CMMI has always struck me as a bit of a funny old thing. What I mean by that is that to those ‘bought in’ to process based working and best practice it is almost literally a no brainer – to almost everyone else it is like luxury goods – take it or leave it the world will go on. An area that we have gained little traction in is in the area of acquisition support. Just google the words supplier appraisal or supplier assessment and there are loads of helpful sites that speak from the perspective of the procurement/acquisition professional and discuss those acquisitions where the ability to really understand the true technology development capability of a potential supplier is critical to the acquisition decision but also to helping the acquiring organisation really appreciate the risk associated with that acquisition. They discuss how the procurement team will often incorporate one or more relevant technical experts who will often perform some element of technical due-diligence on the prospective supplier.
From my (almost certainly heavily biased perspective) this strikes me as yes but. ‘Yes’ for acquisitions that contain technology which is reasonably straightforward. ‘But’ for acquisitions where the technology is novel, the product critically dependent on it, perhaps the requirements not fully understood and the supplier’s capability to deliver being critical to success. In this latter environment there is an approach that will provide more transparency and objectivity. Instead of relying on the good experience of a small number of individuals wouldn’t it be helpful to incorporate the experience of thousands and use an assessment method that is truly objective?
This is where CMMI comes in. CMMI incorporates best practice taken from literally hundreds of successful developments (worldwide) and condenses that experience into a crisply articulated set of requirements that good technology development process should meet (so defining what your processes should achieve not how they achieve it). The model comprises best practice for technical and management processes combined with best practice for ensuring an organisation’s processes are widely adopted and enduring – not just a flash in the pan. Coupled to this is a rigorous assessment method called SCAMPI, with individuals who are highly trained, licensed and quality monitored in their application of it.
So putting these ingredients together means that when the development capability of a supplier is critical to an acquisition then incorporating a CMMI assessment of the short-list or preferred bidder allows the acquisition team to build a truly informed picture of the real technical capability of the supplier. In today’s cost conscious climate perhaps using this approach to enhance due diligence may go some small way to reducing the number of large technology focussed acquisitions that fail to meet expectations?
