Relationships between CMMI Specific Process Areas and Generic Goals

This is an article I wrote back in 2006, reposted here because it still has some points that someone might find useful...

One of the most common areas of confusion when looking at the CMMI is the relationship between the "Process Areas" and the "Generic Goals and Practices".

At a glance, people seem to think that in order to increase the "maturity level" (not to be confused with capability level) of your organisation, you concentrate on the process areas and specific practices for whatever maturity level you're aiming for - and that by focussing on those areas you will achieve the ML badge you've been striving for.

• If when you read the specific process areas you apply all generic practices for them as well as the specific ones, you may well be on the right track. But do you understand why?
• If you just focus on improving the engineering side of things, I can assure you that you are completely missing the point.

And so begins my attempt to explain why, without the use of diagrams or technical jargon...

Process Areas vs. Generic Goals

1. Process Areas are basically lists of the key things you need to do to make sure you do a specific thing properly, grouped under a title that describes the specific thing you're doing;
2. Generic Goals are the key things that you should really be doing whenever you doanything.

These structured lists of things were drawn up based on "industry best practice", so you're likely to find pretty much the same kinds of things in most half-decent management and engineering or development methodologies.

Process Area Example

One thing you'll notice is that some of the points (or "Specific Practices") that make up these Process Areas are, for want of a better expression, a bit noddy. They are totally and utterly obvious. Not only that, but if you are managing a project or developing a piece of software, you are most likely doing it already.

Example: RD, Requirements Development, SP 2.1-1 Collect Stakeholder Needs.

i.e. when capturing requirements (developing an understanding of requirements), you need to first work out what people want.

If you you're not doing this already, I would guess that you are either unemployed or nearing the end of your contract (whether you like it or not).

Generic Goals example

Generic Goals are again common sense.

Example: GP 2.5 Train People.

i.e. for a project to be truly successful, make sure that the people working on your project have the skills required to perform their jobs correctly - and if they don't, provide them with training to make sure that they do.

The big difference here is that Generic Goals should be applied to all Process Areas. Even so, this is still common sense when you think about it. The person responsible for gathering the stakeholder needs when developing requirements for the Process Area example above, really needs to know how to gather requirements to be any good at actually doing that. If they don't have a clue, they will need training, or will end up doing a bad job.

But wait, there's more...

That's the basic relationship between the two - but when you look at the CMMI more carefully you'll start to see that there's a huge amount of cross-referencing to help you work out how to use it.

In other words, some of the Process Areas actually tell you the things you need to do to implement the Generic Goals for all the other Process Areas!

I'm not talking about the explicit cross-referencing you find in the model when it says "refer to the XXX process area for information about XXX", I'm talking about implicit overlaps between Process Areas and Generic Goals.

Best demonstrated with some examples

I'm not going to go through every Generic Goal and map it back to a Process Area for you. You need to think about how you apply this to your organisation e.g. the guidelines of the CMMI's PP Project Planning process area may actually be performed across multiple processes in your organisation, in a way that means that you cannot define your own "Project Planning" process as such, but must instead document how a number of your processes work and demonstrate how you are performing all of the activities described in PP Project Planning. If I just map Process Areas to Generic Goals, there is a temptation to just take the CMMI "As-Is". All I can say is, I wouldn't recommend it.

However, I know that the best way to demonstrate the implicit relationships between Process Areas and Generic Goals is with some examples, so here are my favourite two:

GP2.5 Train People
OT Organizational Training defines the key things to consider for the central management of training for the entire organisation. If you manage training centrally and ensure that all projects consider training for everything they need to do, then you're going to satisfy this Generic Goal.

GP2.6 Manage Configurations
CM Configuration Management sets out the industry best practices for managing configurations. Document the way in which your organisation performs Configuration Management, and apply it to everything you do and you'll be performing GP2.6.

The point

The final comment I'd like to make is that the use of the CMMI requires a bit of thought. Don't just focus on specific Process Areas unless you've really thought about their impact on your organisation.

The CMMI emphasises central management, consistency, understanding and accountability. All good things in my books - but not things you can achieve by just by working down the list and doing "what it says". The CMMI provides a well-structured reference model, but it's not a how-to guide.

Look at your organisation's processes, look at those specified in the CMMI. Look at how working on Process Areas in the right way can move you towards satisfying the Generic Goals.

Repackaged Common Sense = The Next Big Thing

A theme you may notice in some of my posts is that a lot of ideas around "best practice" management, consulting, development or whatever are actually quite often existing ideas repackaged in new frameworks with new buzzwords etc.

That isn't a criticism, it's an observation. In fact, quite often the new presentation and structure of these ideas represents the evolution of better ways of doing things, even if some of these changes are very subtle, or simply provide a better understanding of the ideas rather than actually changing them.

Some of my posts are likely to be the same - a new view on old ideas. No matter how good something is, it can always be improved, or better understood, or better implemented. The Next Big Thing is the Last Big Thing, only that bit further down the line.

A Simple Way To Boost The Effectiveness Of Visualisations (or "Envisualisations")

This is a really quick and simple tip.

If you are trying to visualise something that has not yet happened and you are struggling to create a mental image, there is an additional visual image that you can create that can massively boost the effectiveness of your visualisation.

Imagine the reaction of someone you know well to the outcome of whatever it is that you are visualising. Make sure that there is context to the visualisation so that the reaction could clearly only have occurred if your desired outcome has been achieved, but if you can make this real enough in your mind it can help a lot.

Why does this work? There are a number of reasons, with the following two being at the top of the list:

First, it's a people focus. As human beings we respond well to the reactions of other human beings, so there is an innate, emotional response that is created by thinking about other people's reactions to something.

Second, it's easier to imagine a scenario that is "real" in your mind. You can imagine the real person, in a real location, using expressions that they often use, to make the visual image far more grounded, easier to recall and more believable.

Third, it's easier to focus on the outcome without being tempted to try to work out how to get there. This way, you can leave your subconscious to work out how to get there rather than confusing your thoughts with details that aren't important for this exercise. Even if in order to achieve the visualisation you need to do a lot of conscious thinking, while you are visualising it you should not: you should be focussed on the experience and feelings of the moment that you want to create.

Give it a go: you'll be amazed by how effective it can be.

An All-New Term For Visualisation

A slip of the tongue from my wife has created a brilliant, all-new term for visualisation. I'm hoping it will catch on...

What is visualisation?

For the uninitiated, put simply, visualisation is a technique whereby you create an experience that you want to have in your mind.

In some cases this experience is something you have already done, so visualisation can be seen as "mental rehearsal". For this, there is a lot of evidence that rehearsing an experience in your mind, for example successfully shooting a basketball hoop, can significantly improve your performance in that experience in reality.

In other cases, the visualisation may be of something that you have not yet experienced but want to experience in the future. This is actually something that most people do without even realising it, to some degree. For example, an artist will have some idea in their mind of what they are going to create; no matter what you do, you will have some kind of vision of what success looks like before you do it.

Visualisation in everyday life

Another example that you may be more familiar with could be driving into town: you know that you are going to take the car and that you will end up in town. You probably have some kind of idea of the route you will take, where you will park, and so on. This idea of the route and end destination may appear to you as images - even if just momentarily and without you really thinking about it, because it is so natural to do. Visualisation takes this a step further and is the conscious act of thinking through what you are going to do. Some people refer to it as a mental movie that you play to yourself.

There are various theories about the impact of visualisation, ranging from the idea that visualisation is just a way of planning and preparing but not much more, to the more extreme beliefs such as those expressed in films like "The Secret" and in books on the use of the subconscious, which suggest that just by thinking something we can manifest them in reality, and by visualising and end result your subconscious, or even the universe itself, will bend to make it happen.

The new term: Envisualise!

My wife has been talking about what we are going to do to the rooms in our new home and something she always does is to build a vision of what the new room will look like: colours, furniture, patterns and so on. It's the way she's always approached this kind of thing and has never read anything on visualisation or any similar techniques (although she may have heard a term or two like this from me).

She often talks about how she envisages the room and what her vision looks like. Recently, she said to me that it was how she had "envisualised" it. It made us both laugh, but actually I think it's a great term. It's a cross between envisage and visualise: it's the union and evolution of the two techniques.

Brilliant.

I hope you enjoy this new word and start using it to describe your envisualisations from now on!

The Key To Success: Cross-Train!

There is no single way to achieve success in life and there is no "right" or "wrong" path.

Some people seem to be able to achieve all of their goals in an effortless way while others work hard for many years to get there.

There are many books, videos, seminars, courses and other different forms of advice available on subjects of personal development and on specific skills, but which ones should you go on? Should you even bother or can you achieve all of your goals without looking to others for help?

Well, there are people through the ages who have been massively successful without going on any courses. They worked it out themselves - and you could too.

Accelerate the learning process

However, the great benefit of learning from others is that it accelerates the learning process. It is one of the primary reasons for the human species: the ability to pass on knowledge from one generation to another; the ability for us to learn from others to build our capabilities and to avoid repeating mistakes.

I personally am constantly reading and learning. Every experience in my life - no matter how mundane - is an opportunity to enjoy life and to learn something. Even if the learning is simply building on something you already know, it is still all experience.

Multiple "right" answers

There are many people claiming to have "the answer". A lot of these "answers" are quite different approaches to the same thing; many more are re-packaged or re-worded versions of the same approach, with a slightly different spin.

In my experience, many of these "answers" can have some truth in them and can provide some extra insight that will help you.

The most important thing is to evaluate techniques and use your own intelligence in deciding what you are going to take away from them. How does what these techniques provide build on your own view on the world? What additional value does it bring, how will it help you do something better or avoid doing something that is not as constructive as it could be?

At the same time, everything must be taken with a pinch of salt. Many of the people selling these thoughts are very good marketers and will try to convince you that their way is the only way and the right way. Buy their products and you will achieve ultimate enlightenment and a long and happy fulfilled life!

Take the best bits but don't be brainwashed by this way of thinking. We as human being create models to help us better understand the world and to be able to deal with things, but they are only models: only approximations for us to understand and do things that would be beyond our capabilities without these simplifications.

Why cross-training is so important

We all learn in very different ways and getting lots of different perspectives is a very constructive thing to do as it exposes us to alternative ways of understanding things that may be more in tune with our learning style. It can also "fill the gaps" in the jigsaw of our understanding such that we are able to achieve an even greater insight than even the people who are providing the advice.

If we just look at one way of doing something, we will never be able to achieve this insight.

When I talk about cross-training, I'm not just talking about personal development/self help approaches. I'm talking about everything: relationships, work, technologies, hobbies; academic and practical; subjective and objective.

At work, I often make use of skills that I have picked up from widely different areas of study and experience. It is the fact that I apply this range of skills and continuously build my skills that makes me so effective. Specialism and depth of knowledge is extremely useful, but without the ability to apply it using the range of other skills that we have at our disposal our expertise would remain a blunt instrument.

In the world of personal development, there are loads of different theories and approaches and it really is worth considering a variety of them - even things that may seem dubious to you at first: it was actually a very "fluffy", almost "spiritual" book that I read that had the most profound and constructive impact on me, even though I don't believe all of its pseudo-science, many of the techniques and ideas suddenly made a lot of what I had read in the past fall in to place, and by putting them into effect I have experienced a radical change.

So - cross train and become as rounded an individual as you can be. It really could make the difference in terms of both the amount of success that you experience and in the speed at which you experience it!

Free Online: "The Secret" Video

I just stumbled across a full version of "The Secret" online and the link is below.

I'm not sure whether it's supposed to be up there (it's on some Chinese site) - but I've just watched it and it is a full version in English with Chinese subtitles.

Whether you believe all of the "science" (or pseudo-science) or not, it has some interesting ideas and there is a lot of evidence to support the value of techniques such as visualisation: even if you don't believe the "reasons" behind the theories, I've put a lot of these concepts into action and can confirm that they really have worked for me.

The link is here: http://v.ku6.com/show/68l4FTFqkVZhWcvX.html

Hope you enjoy. It's good enough that I've decided to buy the DVD for a friend of mine to watch as I think they could really benefit from it. You can find the DVD:

• On Amazon.CO.UK here: (click here to see The Secret (Extended Edition) [DVD] [2006] on Amazon.co.uk), or
  
  
• On Amazon.COM here: (click here to see The Secret (Extended Edition) on Amazon.com)

Let me know what you think!

Thanks For Your Messages of Support: I Am Back

Many thanks to all of you who have sent me messages encouraging me to continue blogging. To be honest, I didn't realise so many people were reading and am returning because of this support.

It's been over 6 months since my last post, but it has been an amazingly busy and successful 6 months. I have learnt a huge amount and have far more useful insights to share than before. I have also continued to write (as I originally committed to myself that I would) - albeit not on this blog.

This is just an initial post to let everyone know that I am returning and my first proper posts will start appearing over the next few days - so watch this space.

The best thing for me is that all of the work on personal development is really paying off - but at times in ways I didn't expect - so there are various things I can share on that front.

Great things that have happened in my life over the past few months (and are continuing to get better) include:

• A great pay rise and bonus, above my expectations
• I have taken on a couple of new roles at work and am now presented with more opportunities than I could possibly pursue, so I am able to pick and choose
• My wife is expecting our first son, due to be born in November (we were previously told that she might have trouble conceiving)
• People have been very generous in offering us various good quality baby furniture and toys to get us started
• We have found a great house that would previously have been out of our range, have sold our house and will be moving in over the next month
• There have been various great social events with friends and family that I haven't seen in a long time, including a stag do and wedding that were both brilliant
• ...and quite a bit more - and very recently I had another breakthrough that makes all of these things seem like very small steps in comparison...

So, here I am and I'm glad to be back. Please do get in touch if there is anything in particular you would like to hear about and my first posts will follow soon...