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Experience Speaks Volumes
This emerging reasoning framework is constructed, in part, based on SEI research on the CMMI and Six Sigma combination, including investigating Six Sigma as a strategic enabler of CMMI and other improvement technologies [Siviy 07] and on specific engagements where we’ve been asked to assist organizations in their pursuit of a multimodel solution. It also leverages results from SEI work on the other combination as well as relevant non-SEI research publications about improvement method taxonomies and so forth.
We also have researched experience reports from practitioners and emerging solutions from service providers. Following is a sampling of publicly available experience reports from practitioners with successful multimodel solutions that have shaped our thinking:
- Lockheed Martin IS&GS has integrated CMMI, EIA 632, ISO 12207, and Six Sigma via its Program Process Standard. Lockheed’s approach has resulted in accelerated achievement of process and performance uniformity across a geographically dispersed organization. [Siviy 07]
- Northrop Grumman Mission Systems has integrated CMMI, ISO 9001, AS9100, and Six Sigma, as well as a formal approach to knowledge management. The results have included visible change toward a measurement-oriented culture and accelerated achievement of CMMI goals. [Hefner and Sturgeon 02; Hefner and Caccavo 03]
- Wipro has an enterprise-integrated approach, via its Veloci-Q system, comprising ISO 9001, CMM, People CMM, TL 9000, British Standard 7799, and Six Sigma. "Six Sigma methodologies brought in quantitative understanding, cost savings, and performance improvement toward product quality[...]" and "[...]brought about a focused customer-centric and data-driven paradigm to product and process quality." [Subramanyam et al. 04]
- Tata Consultancy Services has incorporated CMMI, ITIL, ISO 9001, and People CMM into a modular framework called the Integrated Quality Management System. This allows the company to address its business goals for productivity, capacity, agility, reliability, and service effectively. [Srivastava 06]
- University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) is simultaneously engaged in CMMI, Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX), and ITIL. Though UPMC started implementing these programs separately, it realized that one collaborative effort would be most effective. Through prioritization of processes to be implemented, alignment of practices across models, and other factors, this center was the first nonprofit medical system in the country to be certified compliant with the most stringent provisions of Sarbanes-Oxley. [Carmody and Maher 07]
Each of these organizations has designed and implemented an approach suitable for its organizational culture and business needs. Several have integrated the technologies of choice into a process infrastructure known internally by its organizational name or label, not by the respective names of each technology. In these cases, the software engineers are more likely to assert that they conduct their work using their organization process than they are to say that they use CMMI or another technology. They say this with the confidence that their organizational process infrastructure is compliant with the technologies and standards that are important to the business.