Chapter 7: Understanding Maturity Level 4: Quantitatively Managed

Summary

Maturity Level 3 takes the best practices and lessons learned from Maturity Level 2 and integrates them at the organizational level. Level 3 requires more sophistication than Level 2. This sophistication is not achieved overnight; it is the result of maturing in your understanding of what the organization does, what it should do, what it can become capable of doing, and why it should do these things. Integrated Project Management can be considered the evolution of Project Planning and Project Monitoring and Control from Level 2. Risk Management can be considered the evolution of risk considerations in Project Planning and Project Monitoring and Control from Level 2 to Level 3. Integrated Supplier Management can be considered the evolution of Supplier Agreement Management from Level 2.

Level 3 has 14 PAs ” twice as many as at Level 2. That is way too many areas to implement in one level.

Level 3 is divided into four basic process categories:

• Engineering PAs: Requirements Development, Technical Solution, Product Integration, Verification, and Validation

• Process Management PAs: Organization Process Focus, Organization Process Definition, and Organizational Training

• Project Management PAs: Integrated Project Management, Risk Management, Integrated Teaming, and Integrated Supplier Management

• Support PAs: Decision Analysis and Resolution, and Organizational Environment for Integration

Redundancies? Of course. Two that come to mind are Generic Practice 3.1: Establish a Defined Process, which overlaps with Organizational Process Definition; and Generic Practice 3.2: Collect Improvement Information, which overlaps with Organizational Process Focus.

One important concept must be discussed. The overview of Maturity Level 3 in the staged representation of the CMMI states that "Another critical distinction is that at Maturity Level 3, processes are typically described in more detail and more rigorously than at Maturity Level 2." We feel this sentence can lead to great misunderstandings and ultimate failure of your process improvement effort if interpreted incorrectly. Processes should always be defined at the level of detail necessary to be followed consistently. Procedures written can document how to perform the processes in more detail. However, some organizations have decided, based on this sentence in the CMMI, that processes do not have to be written until Level 3. That is not correct! We believe that what the authors of the CMMI are trying to say is that it is just natural that, as your organization matures and you become more adept at writing, you will get better at writing better process documentation. The Generic Practices support the view that processes are required at Level 2. Generic Practice 2.2: Plan the Process specifically states that "establishing a plan includes documenting the plan and providing a process description . The plan for performing the process typically includes the following . Process Description ." Generic Practice 2.3: Provide Resources describes ensuring that the resources necessary to perform the process as described by the plan are available. The remaining generic practices at Level 2 also support performing the process. To perform the process, it must have been written. Generic Practice 3.1: Establish a Defined Process (a Level 3 Generic Practice) relates to tailoring a project-specific process from an organizational-level standard process, not that Level 3 is where process documentation is written.