The analysis of the strange phase of CMMI

In the middle of the 90, CMM began to be introduced to China. Tsinghua University in 1999 became the first domestic enterprise to evaluate through CMM, and by the end of 2006, the number of organizations formally evaluated by CMMI was second only to the United States and India, ranking third in the world. The CMM has been promoting the development of software enterprises in China for nearly 10 years. However, in recent years, the introduction of CMMI in China has shown some worrying phenomenon, the social evaluation of CMMI is declining. The author tries to analyze all sorts of strange phenomena after the enterprise evaluates, and makes a warning effect to the improvement of Chinese software process, so that the good process improvement model can fall into bloom in China, and the actual effect is often.

One of the strange phase: Certificate on the desktop, the system put aside

2006 I have been in a software park survey, visited 8 software enterprises through the CMM evaluation, found that 5 enterprises to the CMM evaluation certificate hanging high on the wall, do process improvement personnel have disappeared, basically abandoned the implementation of the system. Probably the 5 companies had no idea to really improve the process, just because the government has subsidies!

In 2000, the State Council issued 8th documents encouraging software industry and the development of integrated circuits policies, and explicitly proposed to encourage software enterprises through CMM evaluation. Local governments have since introduced funding policies, software companies through the evaluation, can be from different parts of the country, such as the Department of Information Industry, Science and Technology Bureau, Foreign Economic and Trade Commission and so on to receive funding. Soon there are software companies in order to enjoy the surface is "free quality cost", with "government money, I take the certificate, do not take the white do not take" mentality, surprise through the CMM evaluation, so there has been a "certificate on the desktop, the system put aside" phenomenon.

In fact, the enterprise has been miscalculated! Most of the government-funded funds are paid to the consulting firms, while the enterprises need to compile the system documents in the process of the evaluation, the direct and indirect evidences of multiple project groups need to be arranged, and the staff are required to receive multiple interviews, which cost a lot of manpower The cost of the workload will generally exceed the amount of government subsidy actually received by the enterprise, and some frauds also lead to the loss of corporate culture. Under this kind of consciousness violates the software industry objective process Improvement law behavior, finally obtains is only a paper certificate! The harm, actually is bigger than the benefit!

Strange Phase bis: Certificate to hand, system major repair

The author has contacted 2 Enterprises, in a short period of time after the CMM or CMMI assessment, the process system has been drastically cut, one of the company's head said: "The original set system is too cumbersome, in order to pass the assessment, we endure, we must now cut!",

This is a misunderstanding of CMMI!

In the various components of CMMI, only the goal is necessary, the practice is expected and the child practice is explained. So first of all, to meet the requirements of each goal in the model, the achievement of the goal is based on the implementation of the Practice of judgment, the model given by the practice can be replaced. As long as you can achieve your goal, you can use any practice.

CMMI adopts Scampi evaluation method, Scampi evaluation method requires director evaluator must have more than 10 years of software engineering experience, the team members must have an average of 6 years of engineering experience, the evaluation team accumulated not less than 25 engineering experience, each life cycle stage to have 2 people with practical experience, At least one member should have more than 6 years management experience, and the evaluation team should have more than 10 years management experience. These requirements are in fact for better expert judgment, to avoid "mechanical copying."

CMMI requires companies to set up tailoring guidelines, and in practice, tailoring guides are often more important than the system itself. Rigid system can not really be carried out in the organization, to maintain the flexibility and agility of the system, you must define a detailed, practical cutting guide, and gradually improve in practice.

The simplification and complexity of the process may meet the requirements of the model, and the key depends on the understanding of the model by the personnel of the drafting system. When the enterprise begins to import CMMI, it is usually to ask the consultant to intervene, but the current domestic CMMI consulting company, consultant, a mixed bag, customers often rely on some websites or associations, such as the so-called independent organizations based on the vote of the "consulting company rankings" netizens. If the consultant's understanding of the model is not deep, their own EPG members lack experience, or the workload of consultants involved in a small amount, it will inevitably be strange.

Strange phase of the third: the duration is still delayed, as usual more defects

An enterprise implementation of the CMMI to a certain stage, EPG complained about leadership awareness problems, not enough to support the process improvement, but the leadership said that the authorization is also authorized, the rewards and punishments, but the project is still in tow, still exist quality problems, that is the EPG did not solve the core problem.