Customer Reviews

CMM Implementation Guide: Choreographing Software Process Improvement

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

This book contains good strategic guidance for Software Engineering Institute (SEI) Capability Maturity Model (CMM)-styled Software Engineering Process Groups (SEPGs), on how to conduct the challenging and ever elusive endeavor of software process improvement (SPI). This book obviously draws from the author's extensive personal background and experience managing and performing SPI. Additionally, this book also contains tactical level guidance for pursuing the fulfillment of the SEI's CMM Level 2 Key Process Areas (KPAs), which is greatly in demand. The author consciously, deliberately, and most thoughtfully targeted the needs of the majority of organizations that undertake SEI CMM-styled SPI. I won't hesitate to recommend this book.

I read this book wanting to learn more about how to implement CMM practices (at all levels) in an organization I was joining. I was disappointed. The book is divided into two parts - 8 chapters of descriptive text, and then a slew of appendices.

The descriptive text was very high-concept pop psychology type of stuff. I really did not need to be reminded that different people learn and adopt things at different rates. Anyone who has dealt with people and change should know this. In addition the constant analogy of a dancer learning new dance steps was at times lame and forced. Right up front, the author demolishes the analogy by stating that dancers get to practice their steps before performing, but software engineers start right out with the performance.

On the positive side, the appendices in the back contain useful worksheets, presentations, and ideas that can be used by practically any organization.

I wish the author had spend less time on the pop psychology aspects, and provided more examples and checklists. Then it would have been a 5 star book for sure.

This book beats anything by others on adopting the CMM. Others take the "overkill" approach of orienting one with massive technically oriented information (which is sometimes akin to "sinking sampans with nukes versus 500 hundred pounders with fuse extenders"). This book is a breath of fresh air in getting introduced to how to implement/adopt technology such as the CMM. I say this book beats anything by others because there is no "techno-babble" to deal with. Ms. Caputo's use of dance choreography is pertinent as it emphasized to me that the typical technology adoption approach of Level 1 organizations of MBSAUYBII (management by stumbling around until you bump into it) is truly "chaotic". What we are really trying to achieve as we go from level to level is a fluid, organized approach that will truly support a smooth transition to a new corporate software engineering paradigm. An added bonus is the included CD which helps o! ne jumpstart the management briefings which are critical to initiating a continuous process improvement (CPI) program. The low price tag saved me thousands of dollars in establishing and initiating my CPI program.

Kim does an excellent job of getting the point accross. Her mission is not to provide CMM checklists or document formats. It is not a bound consultant. All the "I did this.." can be found on the web. A great deal of information can be found directly from the SEI (www.sei.cmu.edu).

Kim provides views into the struggles of applying process frame work in an engineering environment. In fairness, she does a great job. The dancing analogyis a strech for me, but it can be viewed for what it is. This is, after all, part of her (minor in dance after her double technical major).

Overall, this guide is very helpful after you have plowed through Watt Humphrey's writings.

This book is OK at best. I was looking specifically for some guidance in process definition and had high expectations for this book, especially because it's published by Addison Wesley. Unfortunately, I really didn't get much out of it. There's one thing, however, that just about drove me batty -- Caputo spends a great deal of time developing "striking analogies to dance." I found this rather useless. As a typical software professional, am I expected to gain insight into the items being presented with the help of a comparison to an unusual profession? Analogies can be used to aid understanding when the analogy maps the new concept onto one the audience is already familiar with. The space taken to make the constant comparisons could have been better used to provide additional annecdotal evidence.

I have worked in the area of software process improvement for many years, and I have literally dozens of books on the subject. Some I've read once, most I've read two or three times... and then there are a very small group of books that are falling apart, held together by all the "sticky notes" and hilighting and paper clip bookmarks -- these three or four books are never found on the bookshelf, because they are always in use. And of those select books, only one was NOT written by Watts Humphrey; it is this book by Kim Caputo.

Her use of the analogy of dance, from her own personal background, gives a refreshing and *different* perspective to a highly technical subject.

After reading Watts Humphrey's books, *I* understand the CMM and SPI... after reading Kim Caputo's book, I can make *others* understand. And that, to me, has made this book worth its weight in gold.

This book is not really about the technical aspects of implementing the key processes and attaining a specific level of maturity. It's about something much more difficult - overcoming organizational resistance to change.

The path to achieving capability levels 2 through 5 are well defined in other books. Each process area and its requirements are well documented in Mark Paulk's authoritative book. From the technical perspective it may be cut and dried, and in a perfect world not populated by those illogical creatures called people Mr. Paulk's book is all you need.

Unfortunately people are not logical and a clearly laid out roadmap is not enough. You quickly discover that the path to even CMM level 2 is fraught with perils that are strangely missing from the technical books on CMM. Overcoming these perils are what Ms. Caputo's book is all about. She describes techniques for overcoming the resistance to implementation. Instead of rehashing what you need to implement in order to get to a specific level, she tells you how to accomplish the implementation part - the part that is not cut and dried. She does this by relating her own experience, and I can assure you that if you're tasked with implementing CMM (or any other program or initiative for that matter) you can learn a lot about human and organizational nature from this book. You will also learn a lot about what works when effecting change and how to counter the inevitable resistance you'll run into.

If you're looking for CMM technical and process-related information get The Capability Maturity Model: Guidelines for Improving the Software Process by Mark Paulk. If you are actually responsible for implementing it get this book.

This book is a lot like looking for gold -- you have to spend a good bit of time searching through tons of rubble before finding a good nugget or two. If you are looking for technical/practical assistance on keys to implementing the CMM then look elsewhere; the book will do nothing but frustrate you. If you are looking for organizational and managerial help then you *might* find this book useful, but your money is probably better spent elsewhere. The book is heavy on 'organization-speak' and light on real, practical instruction. There are some good war stories, but you probably have ones of your own that are just as good and relevant. The CD and associated forms aren't very useful and they are somewhat poorly organized. The book is not totally without merit, but I still can't find anything in it that even remotely justifies its price.

The book spends an overwhelming portion of its content focusing on a ballet and how it relates to CMM. As an author, I got the impression she was using this as a technique to meet her page quota. The author overuses glittering generalizations about how to manage people and an organization. In that sense, this book is a rehash of useless management fluff from the 80s. This book contains about 15-20 pages worth of useful information and should cost $10. I will never buy a book published by UNISYS again.

....
After 20 years of experience in software development, QA, testing, and project management, I have not found a better book on implementing SEI's CMM than Kim Caputo's book: "CMM Implementation Guide: Choreographing Software Process Improvement". In my opinion, "CMM Implementation Guide: Choreographing Software Process Improvement" is well-written, easy to read, insightful, in-depth, and provides you with the basic knowledge and tools that will increase your chance for a successful implementation of CMM. If you want to improve your software development processes, reduce cost, deliver on-time, increase overall software quality, and increase customer satisfaction, then Kim Caputo's book, "CMM Implementation Guide: Choreographing Software Process Improvement," is a must read for you and your team.

This book provides a step-by-step guide on how to go from CMM level 1 to 5 in eight chapters with some diligence, hard work, and practice. The book also contains 15 appendices that provide more in-depth detail on the specific processes, documentation, and techniques, which I found very helpful and will be utilizing in the near future. I enjoyed Kim Caputo's ability to make the seemingly complicated task of implementing CMM more simplified with her "ready, aim, fire" approach that will ensure a successful CMM implementation. Kim Caputo brings her experience as a dancer and a software professional together to describe the CMM implementation approach, which makes for more interesting reading. She provides a realistic view and approach to implementing CMM and deals with some of the key issues that will keep you from being successful such as management's view of the value of CMM, the culture of the organization, and the basic human resistance to change. You can tell that Kim has "been there, done that" and has gone through the tedious process of and the lessons learned from implementing the CMM. The experiences that Kim describes matched many of my past experiences when trying to make process improvements. The book provides and describes the tools and techniques that were developed at the Unisys Corporation to help ensure success in implementing the CMM process.

I really appreciate how Kim Caputo reinforces that there are no silver bullets or special pills that can make a CMM implementation easier. Kim reminds us that a CMM implementation is a constant, on-going process of improvement that requires choreographed teamwork and practice. The book comes with a CD-ROM that contains all of the basic documentation and forms needed to successfully implement CMM, as discussed in her book. The material on the CD-ROM is worth more than the price of the book.

Chairman, Southern California Quality Assurance Association - Orange County Chapter (SCQAA-OC; [URL])