Serious Commitment

One thing not to like is that organizational improvement isn't easy. James Herbsleb surveyed organizations that had performed SW-CMM improvement. Seventy-seven percent of respondents said that organizational improvement took longer than expected, and 68 percent said it cost more than expected.^[12]

Succeeding at SW-CMM improvement depends on these factors:

• Commitment from top management, including providing leadership and funding, prioritizing long-term improvement as a high priority, and actively monitoring process-improvement progress.

• Establishment of a Software Engineering Process Group (SEPG). More than one SEPG may be required in a large organization. The SEPG must be staffed with senior people who understand the organization's improvement goals, the cultural issues involved in process improvement, and their roles as internal consultants.

• Appropriate training for middle management and technical staff, along with performance rewards that are aligned with long-term SW-CMM objectives.

This is a highly simplified list, and each specific organization will have additional specialized factors that will affect its improvement initiative. As I mentioned in Chapter 2, some organizations implement SW-CMM as a buzzword du jour. Attempts to treat the SW-CMM as yet another silver bullet are not likely to succeed.