A Case Study of the Implementation of CMMI and People CMM Within SITA the South African State IT Agency

Transcription

1 A Case Study of the Implementation of CMMI and People CMM Within SITA the South African State IT Agency Pascal Rabbath CMMI Institute Alex Stall CMMI Institute

2 Overview Client profile Program objective Strategy Approach and solution The results Lessons learned

3 Client profile The South African State IT Agency SITA established to consolidate and coordinate government IT resources: Representation across all 11 provinces of South Africa Employee base: approx FTEs Among SITA s challenges are the need to improve process and workforce capability: Aim to improve the IT services it renders to Government departments A key strategy in addressing challenges was to establish an internal CMMI and People-CMM capability: Aim was to obtain in-house certified professionals

4 Program objective SITA had previously obtained CMMI services from external service providers Identified a desire to obtain an in-house training capability Future aim is to build on this initial capability with an inhouse appraisal capability CMMI Institute approached to develop a training and development for SITA staff members to become instructors Multi-model coverage: CMMI -DEV, CMMI -SVC, CMM I-ACQ People-CMM

5 The Strategy Two-phased training, development and assessment program was developed to suit client s particular needs Phase 1 provided candidates with opportunities to: Be trained and mentored Practice delivering certified courses under supervision Phase 2 entailed observations of candidates who demonstrated required competencies to be observed: Evaluated readiness for observations against Rubrics for CMMI Instructors

6 Some constraints and considerations IT professionals with potential but limited practical experience with applying maturity models Cultural differences in methods of learning compared with accepted methods in Western education system Culturally diverse workforce Developing a training and development program which included mentoring as a cornerstone of the method: Giving candidates opportunities to practice in the live system Ensuring students who were taking model course still achieved learning outcomes despite being practiced on

7 Approach and solution Phase 1 Information sessions on the use of the maturity models: Opportunity for candidates to start practicing public presentation techniques by facilitating exercises Delivery of one Introductory model course by CMMI Institute Instructor: Demonstrated planning, preparation, delivery and debrief of LC based course: Candidates participated in all activities with detailed debrief sessions capturing lessons learned

8 Approach and solution Phase 1 (cont.) Delivery of several Introductory model courses: Provided candidates with several opportunities to practice a safe learning environment Students encouraged to learn and make mistakes Detailed de-briefing sessions during and at the end of each opportunity Delivery of one-day supplements primarily by candidates with backup from Institute Instructor: Practice taking primary responsibility of course planning, preparation, delivery and debrief Detailed assessment of each candidate against the Instructor Rubrics

9 Approach and solution Phase 2 Candidates who demonstrated required competency to proceed to observation were allowed to enter into Phase 2: Fundamental entry criteria used to enter into Observation phase was demonstrated readiness to be observed Again evaluated against Rubrics for Instructors Phase 2 provided successful candidates with several opportunities to practice largely on their own: Had to take primary responsibility for planning, preparation, delivery and de-brief of introductory courses Training opportunities were still technically being delivered by CMMI Institute

10 Approach and solution Phase 2 (cont.) Final step was the conduct of observations From the list of candidates, two demonstrated ability to instruct to expected standard and passed all assessments Observations were not limited to just a single event, with each of the candidates completing three observations: One for CMMI -DEV One for CMM I-SVC One for People-CMM Arranged surprise visit of CEO to one of the observations to witness first hand the capability he had invested in: Became one of the students

11 The results Instructors under observation had multiple opportunities to practice delivery of the courses by now: Candidates saw observations as just another day delivering the course Delivered the course with a high degree of capability Obvious and predictable outcome but that was the whole point of the program The individuals are now in critical roles within SITA: Managing project rescue and remediation initiatives One of them is in employed in an executive capacity

12 Lessons Learned There is substantial merit in adopting a mentoring approach to developing the capability of Certified individuals This approach acknowledges it is not always possible for an individual to conduct self-paced capability development Benefits include: Appropriate knowledge and skills transfer Ensuring consistency through training and development Minimizes chances of negative learning Provides the mentor with the opportunity to hone their own capability through the mentoring relationship