What are the ways to interest Senior Management in the CMMI Implementation Program or How to win the senior management to sponsor CMMI in the organization?

CMMI FAQ 0

23rd May, 2014

There are two prominent aspects to involvement of senior management with respect to CMMI Initiative: (a) Senior Management expectations from the CMMI project (b) Other stakeholders’ (including the employees) expectations from the senior management with their commitment to CMMI. Every organization is having its specificity and also there are generic principles that would work for every organization. Further, the CMMI concepts (some can call it jargon) have to be presented in terms which are relevant to the particular organization – even – by relating them to the recent events / case studies in the organization – with respect to successes or failures. Similarly, people on the ground would like to see that if the CMMI is being implemented – what is there in it for them?. Management looks at how they get out of CMMI, what they want to achieve out of the organization. There is less interest in what the CMMI book says or the CMMI guru says. Ultimately, it is the delivery on the ground that matters. With this context, I would say, that if we prepare a org-specific, 05-10 page article, for the management with ideas distilled and articulated in terms of the language and ethos of the organization – that works best. CMMI Implementation Guide (by Suz Garcia and Rich Turner, 2007 Edition), Para 4.4, of Chapter 4, titled “Using CMMI Guide to your Improvement” contains three very focused pages (Page 61 to 64) in a tabular format that can be used to develop the 05-10 page organization-specific article. Similarly, Table 2.2 (Pages 29 to 28) of CMMI Implementation Guide (Kim Caputo, Edition 1998) will be helpful. For instance in this book, under Table 2.2, Page 28, there is a comment on surviving in a business world that is constantly changing and how it requires constant adaptation and learning. Now, when the senior management see these kind of ideas emerging out of CMMI, they are thrilled. It is a case of marketing and positioning to Senior Management and that includes “providing a book to them” as required by Angus’s senior management.

Further, I would like to add that a “Cultural and Communication Guidance” need to be prepared for the senior management so that when they address the employees at informal and formal communications they present CMMI not as CMMI but a pragmatic approach for success. Heavily “consulting” or “coaching” approach never works with senior management – we all like to be natural.