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CMMI Roadmaps are a goal-driven approach to selecting and deploying relevant process areas from the CMMI. Their aim is to deploy the CMMI effective, and quickly get business result. Let’s see how the CMMI Roadmaps can be used with the CMMI V1.3. 

CMMI uses two representations: staged and continuous. The staged representation is the most used representation, although the continuous representation is commonly perceived to be a more flexible option. Often, potential CMMI users do not select the continuous representation because they find it difficult to pick “the right set and order” of process areas for their situation. Potential users may then choose the staged representation because they don’t know where to start in the continuous representation.

This is where the CMMI roadmaps provide a solution. A roadmap is a set of CMMI process areas that together serve an organization to identify and implement process improvements. There are 5 pre-defined roadmaps: Project, Product, Product Integration, Process and Measurement. This first posting on roadmaps describes the changes in the CMMI V1.3 related to the project roadmap. Next postings will cover the other roadmaps.

The Configuration Management (CM) process area has been extended with agile practices like frequent builds, workspaces for teams and individuals, and automation.. The identification and handling of risks has been elaborated in the process areas Project Monitoring and Control (PMC). PMC also contains more information about progress reviews and milestone reviews. Unfortunately, agile practices are still missing in PMC. In the Project Planning (PP) process area, both product lines and agile practices have been added, which makes it much easier to apply this process area in different organization settings. PP also includes the necessary preparation activities for progress and milestone reviews, to support PMC. The process area Process and Product Quality Assurance (PPQA) contains limited information about deploying quality in agile organizations. The Requirement Management (RM) process area has been extended with agile practices, like iterations, backlog, and story cards. Also the relationship between requirements and business needs and value has been emphasized. Examples of how to ensure traceability between requirements and work products are given.

My conclusion is that the extensions and clarifications of the process areas have made the project roadmap more complete and stronger, thus enabling organizations to get results with this roadmap. All process areas, but PMC and only limited in PPQA, now include agile practices, making this project roadmap also usable for organizations that deploy or are migrating to agile. When needed the roadmap can still be extended with other process areas, like Risk Management or Supplier Agreement Management, or (when combined with the CMMI for Acquisition model) with Agreement Management (AM) or Solicitation and Supplier Agreement Development (SSAD).

Next postings will cover the other CMMI roadmaps. Stay tuned!