SEI CMMI is crap

Most IT firms have grossly misunderstood SEI CMMI. Today, IT firms treat SEI CMMI purely as a marketing stunt. In fact, the situation has become so bad that most IT professionals now despise SEI CMMI and consider it as crap. For most people, the mere mention of SEI CMMI is repelling.

But is it really crap and is it really just a marketing stunt?

Most people reading this blog would be aware of 'Design patterns’ and how they came into being -- Read http://itcit.blogspot.com/2008/06/invisible-design-patterns.html. Design patterns are just a compilation of best practices and tried-and-tested solution to problems that are repeatable across IT projects.

On the same lines, SEI CMMI, as I understand it, is simply a collection of best practices and guidelines for software engineering and management. In fact, I sometimes refer to it as the magic key for dumb project managers; a key that ensures the success of their project if they follow the SEI CMMI principles in the right earnest. It has really made the job of project managers really easy. It helps cover most project risks and proactive mitigates them. Things like - Requirement traceability, configuration management, acceptance criteria, defect prevention meetings are surely a prescription of ensuring success. In fact, these are the things that any project managers should be ensuring in any case (whether CMMI or not) --- SEI CMMI just reminds the PMs that they should take care of these things.

So, why is it so difficult for IT firms to ensure SEI CMMI compliance in their firms? Well, i will include this in my next post.