Rolling Stones Announce CMMI for Services Initiative

LONDON, U.K. April 1, 2009. Rock legends The Rolling Stones will be adopting the new CMMI for Services as a best practices framework for the group's entertainment and music composition efforts, a spokesperson announced today.

The Capability Maturity Model Integration for Services, affectionately nicknamed CMMI-SVC, was released in February 2009 by the Software Engineering Institute (SEI). The announcement of a CMMI initiative by the self-described "world's greatest rock and roll band" immediately sent shock waves through the music industry. Although Madonna denounced the news as "a desperate effort to remain relevant" not unlike her own attempts, teen pop sensations The Jonas Brothers simply asked "Rolling who?"

When queried about his unexpected attraction to the CMMI, lead singer Mick Jagger cited his experience with other models, notably ex-wives Bianca Jagger and Jerry Hall. In fact, most music critics agree that the Stones' best work was indeed produced in a "multi-model" environment.

In a statement issued earlier today, the band reached out to its potentially befuddled fanbase. "We'd like our fans to realize that this is a legitimate improvement effort, not a simple box-checking exercise. The internet rumors that a misguided application of Process and Product Quality Assurance may result in changing the title of "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" to "(I Can't Get Any) Satisfaction" are completely unfounded. However, we must say this: anything produced during the disco era could indeed be subject to re-engineering, including the lyrics "oooh oooh oooh oooh oooh oooh oooh, oooh oooh oooh oooh oooh oooh oooh, gonna miss you."

Keith Richards, Mick's longtime band-mate and collaborator, has already been credited with applying Strategic Service Management principles to extend his "brand" to the highly successful Pirates of the Caribbean movie franchise. Speaking through a translator, it sounded like Keith might also have said "I can see where Risk Management or Incident Resolution and Prevention might have resulted in much less jail time during our more experimental days. Like Mick, I've embraced more than my share of models. This is certainly not the slimmest one, but we're in it for the long haul and I think it's here to stay."

What's next for the band? Mick explained, "Keith and I are both 65, so you might say we've already attained a certain 'maturity level.' We're now looking at process areas like Service Continuity so we can keep reliably selling out stadiums, even when we're out there with our walkers and canes. I'm a big Cleveland fan and Keith loves Detroit, so we'd love to rock a Browns-Lions Super Bowl someday!"

Browns? Lions? Super Bowl? Obviously, these guys plan to be around awhile.

(Happy April 1st from www.CmmiTraining.com!)

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