CMM Practices or Project Management Templates

Question

Our company is a startup and we would like to implement all standard CMM or Project management templates, wherever possible, in our project. Where could I get these standard templates?

Answer 1

There are no CMM/CMMI templates that I am aware of The goal of CMM is to assess how well your organization produces software. If you are using specific processes, such as the Personal Software Process, Team Software Process, or agile approaches, there are specific artifacts that are associated with the process.

I would start to look at whatever process you are implementing and find what kinds of artifacts that process produces. If you want general templates, you can check out the ReadySET Templates.

Answer 2

Going CMM is the surest way to bury your people in value-sucking, spirit-crushing bureaucracy.

Software development is an empirical process, not a defined process. There are much better lean/agile processes that, when applied properly, will give you the control and accountability you're seeking, while giving your people the freedom, time, and desire to innovate.

Turn from the Dark Side. There is good in you, Thomas...I know it.

Answer 3

Echoing Thomas, there are not any standard templates of which I'm aware. Some organizations create their own, others buy them pre-packaged; I believe they tend to be rather expensive if purchased. The (prepackaged) set I saw was a collection of (mostly) Excel spreadsheets for tracking your data and some Word files with procedural write ups; unfortunately, I don't remember/can't discover who those were purchased from.

In some cases, you need to have CMMI certification just to bid on work. Having been on the edges of one employer's certification process, I'm not a serious detractor or fan of CMMI. Like any tool, it can be useful if used correctly, and damaging if used incorrectly. Unfortunately, I think it's used incorrectly more often than not.

There are some folks who think that Agile methods and CMMI can be used together. The AgileCMMI blog has some thoughts on this. Broadsword Solutions seems to be selling templates for a merged Agile/CMMI process. I don't endorse them or denounce them.