Making Our Business Case for CMMI-SVC

A reasonable person might wonder just why we're pursuing the CMMI for Services in the first place. Believe me, there are loads of things we could be doing instead. Like marketing, new course development, or laundry. So, let's cut to the chase.

For Us, the Decision Was Mind-Numbingly Easy

Look at the facts, people:

• We're a consulting firm. (In fact, a CMMI consulting firm.)
  
• Consulting is a service. (At least, you hope it is.)
• The CMMI for Services is designed for organizations that deliver services.
• Therefore, the CMMI for Services applies to our company. (Or at least could... if we wanted it to.)

Finally, and most importantly, if:

• we truly believe in the value of CMMI (and we do, at least when it's done correctly),
• we preach the CMMI to our clients (and we do, because we like to stay in business), and
  
• we consider ourselves CMMI "experts" (I'm not going there; you be the judge)

...wouldn't we leap at the opportunity to adopt it for ourselves?

(And if we didn't, wouldn't you wonder... why?)

What Do We Hope to Gain?

Now you have at least part of the picture. But there's more. Here's the part that people with superficial exposure to the CMMI may have a tough time buying into. Get ready for a shocker:

We're adopting the CMMI for Services to become more efficient and more effective... so we can do things better, cheaper, or faster... for competitive advantage.

Another way of saying this -- and let this sink in -- is that we're doing it for legitimate improvement, not for a "level rating."

Where's the Data?

Some of you might be thinking, "This sounds okay so far, but where are your numbers, Bill? Have you projected the ROI for this? How can you, as a small company, even afford a CMMI initiative?"

Okay, all you numbers geeks just need to chill. Take a deep breath. Say a few "oooommmmmms." (You know, that supposedly-calming-yet-vaguely-unnerving yoga sound.)

First of all, I like numbers just as much as you do. (Maybe even more; my undergrad was Applied Math.) And if I wanted to, I could spew forth SEI data until you begged for mercy. Like, the 2006 SEI study showing a median 4:1 return on investment for CMMI-based improvement initiatives ("Performance Results of CMMI-Based Process Improvement", Gibson and Goldenson). That data, though, would be for the CMMI for Development. CMMI-SVC data will be hard to find for a while because of the little technicality that CMMI-SVC doesn't officially exist yet! (Remember it's a draft, scheduled for March 2009 release.) I guess I could sit on my hands for a few years waiting for the emperical evidence to appear, but that hardly seems appropriate for an organization named "Leading Edge," does it?

Here's another potential surprise for you: We haven't even estimated how much money or time our initiative will cost. We also don't know when it will end, if ever. How can we be so fiscally irresponsible? Welcome to our dirty little secret...

An Agile Approach to CMMI-SVC

Here's the thing: For my company to plan and manage a big, comprehensive, formal, internal process improvement initiative would be ridiculous. We don't have the time. We don't have the money. (Check back with us in a few years regarding the money, although I'm guessing we still won't have the time.)

But we can take one small step at a time.

The beauty of using the CMMI-SVC (or any CMMI model) for legitimate process improvement is that you don’t have to implement the whole thing! You can select the areas of the model that you think will help you the most and simply address those. Then iterate as needed. We wish we could take credit for this approach, but it's been around for a while (although, I think, used by surprisingly few companies).

In Conclusion

In our particular circumstances, our business case is closely tied to our approach. Our agile approach mitigates the risk of biting off more than we can chew, and ensures that our process improvement effort has bottom-line relevance by focusing on our most pressing problems first.