Incompatibilities between CMMI and agile have largely been due to misapplication of CMMI stemming from a narrow and misguided understanding of CMMI. This is exacerbated when CMMI is viewed as a compliance standard for defining heavyweight processes rather than an improvement model to increase performance. Isn't it about time the Agile community just moved on and stopped dwelling and obsessing over CMMI and its supposed incompatibilities with agile? Yeah, I said it, _supposed_. There is nothing in CMMI that demands incompatibilities with agile practices, values, or the principles behind the manifesto. Any incompatibilities are due to either how people have inappropriately wielded CMMI, abused agile, or both. Most information/presentations about successes and failures of CMMI (with or without agile) have largely done little more than highlight what various organizations managed to do to satisfy appraisals. However, this compliance-driven perspective leaves out critical information about what CMMI actually works, how the appraisal is actually conducted, and how to use CMMI for actual improvement rather than appraisal compliance. In fact, most information and presentations on the integration of CMMI and agile have done very little to stem the tidal surge of misinformation and "CMMI malpractice" about how to actually work with CMMI -- both for the benefits of improvement as well as for getting coveted ratings. CMMI is a model. Models are tools. Before using any tool, users need instructions -- or at least they need to know what the tool is for and whether or not they've got the right problem solved by the tool. This lively, interactive, micro-tutorial will lay plain what CMMI is and how it works so that implementation of the model is clear thereby laying the groundwork for both the benefits of CMMI as well as achieving desired appraisal results. Properly used, CMMI can actually help lean and agile teams learn about themselves, find weaknesses in the way they work, improve their effectiveness and increase their performance. The session will share what I've done with clients for 10+ years that results in these outcomes -- while also achieving CMMI ratings -- while remaining entirely faithful to agile values and principles. The learning outcomes will prepare teams to pursue CMMI effectively with "level ratings" as a by-product of actual performance increases.
