Two Key Challenges to Implementing CMMI

As you’d expect, not every process works for every company.  Certainly, processes for developing an e-commerce Web site should not be as complex or "weighty" as processes for developing safety critical software running inside nuclear power plants.  Processes for developing software in both of these situations should be tuned to their respective development environments, so they wouldn’t share too many similarities.  After all, these two types of development projects have very different scope, budget, schedule, risks and even testing requirements.  Thus, "how to" implement the CMMI depends on how each organization manages and develops software.

This leads us to the second point of discussion: development methodology vs.  management methodology.  As described just above, you’d expect the way in which typical Web sites are developed to be different from the way nuclear power plant software is developed.  How, then, can CMMI work equally well in two such different environments?

Before we can answer that, it is necessary to reiterate that the CMMI is a way of managing software, not developing it, the difference is that managing software has to do with business decisions such as estimating, planning, making commitments and controlling the outcome of the software project, whereas developing has to do with the detailed work of designing, coding, commenting and testing the deliverables.  Software management practices are what allow the company to be consistent in the way it manages the business of software projects, while specific development practices are better left for each project to determine.

The challenges arise when many organizations and consultants fall into a trap: They are deeply accustomed to legacy development practices that were typically used to create large, complex software systems-like nuclear power plant controls and weapon systems.  Many of these development practices are inseparable from their associated management methods.  Whatever the reason, many CMMI practitioners and consultants unwittingly take a "one size fits all" approach when installing CMMI practices, regardless of whether they are implementing them on Information Age software or Cold War era software.  Such approaches result in processes that impede development productivity, increase overhead and generally get abandoned for these reasons.

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