Evaluating CMMI: When is it a Good Fit?

By ExecutiveBrief Staff

The Internal Sell
Because CMMI requires investments of time, money, and manpower to implement and (even more important) to realize cost of quality advantages, the evangelist for CMMI must work to foster buy-in from the various stakeholders, especially senior management. Gaining executive support is not simply a matter of helping them to achieve a sophisticated understanding of CMMI. The lingua franca of business executives is money. Decision making is done in the context of money, and this is the appropriate context in which to sell the program.

For the small company, the greatest impediment to implementing CMMI is typically the upfront costs. The advantage for smaller organizations, on the other hand, is that there are fewer communications agents, and gaining support from the actual process users is not as complicated. Larger companies might find it easier to absorb the costs, but there are more layers of management and staff stakeholders to get on board.

When it comes to establishing buy-in. an ROI presentation may prove to be the most effective approach. In this context, ROI represents a comparison of the costs and benefits of a process improvement effort across a specific organizational scope and time span. Those presenting the case for the CMMI effort must understand the scope of the analysis, the appropriate time horizon for analysis, all relevant and related costs (e.g., training, materials, other soft costs), and the financially quantifiable benefits. The rules of engagement: present all cost and benefit information in dollars and cents.

Execute
ROI alone may be the selling point for senior management, but while it is a constituent that may be vitally important, it will not necessarily improve the results of a CMMI effort. You must execute. As with any process improvement effort, the implementation team should find ways to leverage best practices in organizational change in order to overcome resistance to the change. Ultimately, ROI should be determined and tracked not only for its own sake, but also because it keeps the focus squarely where CMMI belongs…on the material benefits to the business.

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