“Our Journey to CMM Level 5” was the topic of a presentation given by Jim Cisneros, Vice President of Systems Development, at the February meeting of the Project Management Institute (PMI), Orange County Chapter, held in Costa Mesa, CA.

Jim was warmly welcomed by the PMI Vice President of Programs, Terry Ehrhard. Speaking before a group of more than 200 project management professionals, the Software Engineering Institute’s Capability Maturity Model (SEI-CMM) process needed little introduction, as many local companies are considering CMM or actively pursuing its certification.

Starting with a brief CMM overview, Jim focused on why ITresources elected to become CMM certified and how the company went through the process. He candidly reviewed what worked well, what some of the challenges were and what he could offer the audience in the way of lessons learned.

Since ITresources is a full-service IT organization, specializing in managed services, project-based initiatives and supplemental staffing, Jim noted that ‘it is our business to provide all of our customers with predictable, consistent, quality deliverables.’

ITresources’ success at moving from CMM Level 1 to Level 5 in under 4 years demonstrated the company’s commitment to its customers and its distinction from its competitors. While progressing from one level to the next, the company ‘looked in its closets and under the beds’ to ensure that all key processes were included in the assessment.

CMM measures the process maturity of a software organization and provides it with a gauge of its performance and quality. For ITresources, CMM integrates the company’s system development methodology, experienced staff and existing quality metrics with formal training, a dedicated quality assurance function and the increased use of templates, forms and standard policies.

ITresources complements the CMM processes with internal software and technical groups that continually review the processes. Combined with strong executive management support and involvement, continuous improvement enables the company to consistently deliver 98% of its projects on schedule and within 5% of budget at a quality level that exceeds that of the average CMM Level 5 company.

As one of 122 Level 5 companies worldwide and 14 in the United States, Jim emphasized that the standards and processes which evolved at ITresources during the CMM certification process can apply across organizations and across business areas. They are not limited to Information Technology.

In his summary of the journey to CMM 5, Jim recommended the following as lessons learned for the PMI audience:

	Treat your CMM certification as a project.
	Appoint a passionate project manager who is committed to the process and an ally to your staff.
	Free up your best people to participate in the process improvement effort.
	As you transition from one level to the next, build a foundation for the future CMM levels.
	Utilize an SEI certified assessor, a professional consultant to lead you through the process.
	Train, train, train your staff.

Regardless of an organization’s future certification plans, Jim stressed that there are some key elements that can be implemented today:

	Use a detailed project plan with weekly updates and deliverables.
	Track and manage scope and project issues.
	Standardized weekly project status reporting.
	Implement peer reviews of key technical deliverables, utilizing your domain experts’ knowledge and experience for defect prevention.
	Conduct a review at the end of each project phase to analyze results in relation to what went well and what needs improvement.

“Our Journey to CMM Level 5” was followed by a lively Q&A session and several one-on-one questions to Jim from attendees who found this PMI meeting of special interest.

For more information on the CMM certification process, see the ‘About Our Company’ area of our web site.