The People Capability Maturity Model®: Guidelines for Improving the Workforce [Hardcover]

Bill Curtis (Author), William E. Hefley (Author), Sally A. Miller (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 24, 2001

Software organizations face extraordinary challenges in attracting, motivating, organizing, developing, and retaining quality technical professionals. This book introduces the SEI's People Capability Maturity Model (P-CMM), a comprehensive, five-level framework for improving workforce practices which draws upon today's best human resources and organizational development processes. The P-CMM's creators show how to characterize the maturity of any organization's workforce practices, guide a program of continuous workforce development, set priorities for immediate action, integrate workforce development with process improvement, and establish a culture of software engineering excellence. Coverage includes: communication, staffing, performance management, training, compensation, knowledge and skills analysis, workforce planning, competency development, career development, mentoring and coaching, team building, organizational competency management, organizational performance alignment, and continuous workforce innovation.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Attracting and retaining talented people is the key to any organization's success. Every organization needs to continually improve its ability to attract, develop, motivate, organize, and retain the workforce needed to accomplish its strategic business objectives. The People Capability Maturity Model® (People CMM®) is a framework for successfully addressing strategic workforce issues. This framework, as documented in this authoritative book, is a guide to help organizations achieve the following:

• Establish an integrated system of workforce practices that is aligned with current and future business objectives
• Characterize the maturity of workforce practices
• Guide a program of continuous workforce development
• Set priorities for improvement actions
• Integrate workforce development with process improvement
• Become an employer of choice

After describing the rationale and evolution of the People CMM, the book details the model, which describes practices for the following:

• Improving individual capability
• Developing effective work groups and organizational culture
• Motivating, managing, and quantifying performance
• Shaping the workforce to meet current and future organizational needs

Case studies provide proof that implementation of the People CMM leads to effective, repeatable, and lasting success in developing a workforce that is able to effectively execute an organization's business.

0201604450B11142001

About the Author

Bill Curtis is cofounder and chief scientist of TeraQuest Metrics, Inc., and the principal architect and author of the People CMM. While at the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) at Carnegie Mellon University, Dr. Curtis led the program that published the Capability Maturity Model for Software, v1.1. His doctorate is in industrial/organizational psychology and statistics.

 

Dr. William E. Hefley is a clinical associate professor at the Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business and the College of Business Administration at the University of Pittsburgh. He is the managing principal consultant with Pinnacle Global Management, LLC, a global consulting firm. He is also associated with ITSqc, LLC, whose mission is to evolve capability models and certification methods for organizations involved in sourcing relationships. He is currently working in the areas of IT-enabled sourcing from the perspectives of both service providers (the eSCM-SP) and their clients, and he led the effort to develop the eSCM for Client Organizations (eSCM-CL). Dr. Hefley teaches IT, service science, service innovation, and sourcing management courses, and is a frequent lecturer on service innovation and global software delivery. He also supervises graduate studies and projects related to sourcing relationships, software process management, human capital management, and knowledge management. He was previously on the faculty at Carnegie Mellon University and was a senior member of the technical staff at the SEI, where he led the team that developed the People CMM. Dr. Hefley received his Ph.D. in organization science and information technology from Carnegie Mellon University. He also received an M.S. in engineering and public policy from Carnegie Mellon University and an M.S.S.M from the University of Southern California. He also received a B.S. in computer science and political science, and a B.A. (with distinction) in psychology. He is currently on the editorial boards of several journals and is series editor for the Springer book series on Service Science: Research and Innovations in the Service Economy.

 

Sally A. Miller, coauthor of the People CMM, is a member of the technical staff at the SEI, and a veteran human resources professional. She manages the People CMM Lead Assessor Track of the SEI's Lead Appraiser Program.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 624 pages
• Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional; 1 edition (December 24, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0201604450
• ISBN-13: 978-0201604450
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.2 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,567,724 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

46 of 46 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars People was the missing part of the SEI's models, no longer, January 6, 2002

By 

Carlos M Mendez Acevedo (Mexico, D.F Mexico) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The People Capability Maturity Model®: Guidelines for Improving the Workforce (Hardcover)

The software development is an activity that involves both social and engineering aspects, addressing the problem with this in mind, in an holistic way will deliver much better results that doing it partially. The People CMM address the human side of software development and completes the engineering side that at the three levels, Organization, Team, and Individual are covered by SW-CMM, TSP and PSP.
The book is divided in three parts, the first one gives the reader a clear understanding not just of the model but the principles that define it. Also very valuable are the briefs of the case studies and specially the first chapter "The Process Maturity Framework" is very helpful to understand the basics of all the CMM's.
The second Part describes the practices that are part the People CMM in a very detailed way, these practices are not any thing new , the real value of the model is defining a framework in which these practices really will deliver sustainable results, thus we may say the whole is larger than the simple sum of the parts, finally the third part, the Appendices, provides a lot of information to support the practioneer.
Definitively this book is for any body involved in a software process improvement programs that wishes to obtain better and lasting results.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hope this finally catches on, March 26, 2002

By 

Linda Zarate "IT Ops Consultant" (Azusa, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The People Capability Maturity Model®: Guidelines for Improving the Workforce (Hardcover)

In the seven years since the 1995 release of the P-CMM, version 1 I've not encountered any sincere effort by any US client to implement the process. My personal theory is that the P-CMM was little known outside of the software engineering community, especially the DoD-related community, when it should have received wider dissemination to human resources and higher-level management. This book from a mainstream publisher should change that. With respect to the model itself, the previous reviewer has done a remarkable job of describing the model and how this book supports it. I have a few additional notes to add:
(1) This book is about version 2, which corrects some flaws in the first version which had team building at level 4. In the version, 2, described in this book team building has been placed at level 3.
(2) Another change from version 1 to version 2 is the alignment of the P-CMM to the CMMI, especially with respect to integrated product and process development.
(3) Version 2 adds institutionalization goals to each process area.

If you have previous experience with the older versions of P-CMM, or CMM-SW, or the newer approaches as set forth in later versions and CMMI, you'll note that there are two implementation models: staged and continuous. The staged approach is the only supported implementation for P-CMM version 2.

The book goes into extraordinary detail about the P-CMM and how to implement it. You can easily use this book as a roadmap to achieving levels 2 through 5 of the P-CMM, or as a resource for improving the people part of the people-process-technology triad that defines IT. As such you need not have certification as a goal to gain value from this book. If you do decide to pursue certification at level 2 or higher, however, I strongly recommend that you also get a copy of Kim Caputo's 'CMM Implementation Guide'. That book, while focused on implementing the CMM-SW, contains sage advice and a sound approach to dealing with the real problems that you'll encounter: organizational inertia and resistance, training and implementation issues and obtaining they key ingredient - commitment to perform.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Proviides a roadmap to technical workforce management, July 28, 2002

By 

Mike Tarrani "www.tarrani.com" (Deltona, FL USA) - See all my reviews
(COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The People Capability Maturity Model®: Guidelines for Improving the Workforce (Hardcover)

I've been a strong, but frustrated, proponent of the P-CMM since its inception. This book goes well beyond the original SEI documentation by thoroughly describing the rationale behind the CMM and making a strong business case with respect to the tangible and intangible benefits that accrue from implementing it.

This book contains something for managers, particularly upper management who needs to not only endorse the P-CMM, but also need to commit to it and sponsor it in order to make it happen. The chapters of the book that apply to them are:
1 -The Process Maturity Framework, portions of 5 - Interpreting the People CMM (Organizational Factors, and commitment and Ability to Perform), and 7 - Experience with the People CMM).

For technical line managers the entire book will be relevant because it covers the reasons, structure and key process areas in great detail. In addition, once a P-CMM initiative is given the go ahead, the implementation team and all primary stakeholders will also benefit from large portions of the book because it also covers implementation issues and an approach in detail.

Overall, this book presents a maturity framework that contains goals for any organization that understands the relationship between the morale and management of a technical workforce and the resulting impact on the business bottom line. I'll go so far as to state that if this book is followed and a successful implementation of the P-CMM results, attaining the corresponding level of the SW-CMM will be relatively effortless.