Looks like I'm stuck with CMMI training this morning. Whee, fun.
Any readers out there dealt with this monstrosity before? From where I'm sitting (we're starting our CMMI-2 accreditation process), it all looks like an overly complicated mess that does nothing but guarantee the employment of more useless middle-managers. Documentation for every last step, without any actual attention to "results," that I can see.
This whole mess doesn't exactly inspire great bouts of confidence in our ability to produce a usable product, in any event.
Quoth Howard Dean, "Yearrrrrrrgh!"
I'd love to hear what you think. Is this stuff actually useful? Or does it explain exactly why the smallest projects end up costing millions of dollars?
It sounds like you do not see the benefit of using a process improvement model. And whatever your CMMI instructor is explaining to you is not resonating. Rather than guarantee employment of what you call "useless middle managers", the model at Maturity Level 2 is there to enable them to become better managers.
Maturity Level 2 is all about triage and stabilizing projects that are in serious trouble and possibly on life support. The primary reason for project failure is extremely poor management of project requirements. If your requirements are not documented and you suffer from requirements creep, it is no wonder that project estimates are hosed and projects consistently overrun their budgets.
Now the Intro to CMMI class will give you a high level introduction to the different Process Areas of the model, but not in sufficient detail to appropriately implement them. You have to rely on someone who is knowledgeable about the model to appropriately guide your implementation efforts so there is value added to the organization, *NOT* put a lot of useless and cumbersome processes in place that kill your ability to deliver a product.
I am an SEI-authorized High Maturity Lead Appraiser and an SEI-authorized Intro to CMMI instructor. Please visit my company's web site at htttp:\www.ppqc.net and read my blog at PPQC.blogspot.com for more practical information about the CMMI.