CMMI and Agile together

Question

I read the opinion of some software development people that defend the use of CMMI Practices among Agile methodologies. There is possible use those two despair ideas in parallel? And if it is possible, it is not just a to risk path to follow?

Answer 1

It's hardly possible to reach CMMI level 5, but it's certainly possible to go to level 2 or 3. The hardest thing is around documentation. Scrum and other Agile frameworks try to do just the documentation that is needed to deliver the working artifact and focus on documentation through automation and well written code. Many design artifacts live on a whiteboard and get "updated" by wiping the board and changing the picture. The real architecture should be visible in the code and the test suite. If you want to achieve full CMMI certification, you cannot just do that. Which also means that you will have to produce "waste" and will probably not become as agile as you could have become.

See:

• http://www.scrumalliance.org/community/articles/2011/february/implementing-scrum-(agile)-and-cmmi%C2%AE-together
• http://cmmiinstitute.com/cmmi-getting-started/cmmi-compatibility/cmmi-and-agile/cmmi-and-scrum/

Answer 2

CMMI 1.3 introduced support for Agile methods.

Scrum and CMMI Level 5: The Magic Potion for Code Warriors claims:

Early pilot projects at Systematic showed productivity on Scrum teams almost twice that of traditional teams. Other projects demonstrated a story based test driven approach to software development reduced defects found during final test by 40%.
We assert that Scrum and CMMI together bring a more powerful combination of adaptability and predictability than either one alone and suggest how other companies can combine them.

Succeeding with Agile: Software Development Using Scrum By Mike Cohn has a section about CMMI which suggests a number of practices:

• Put enough effort into your backlog
• Put compliance work on the product backlog
• Consider the use of checklists
• Automate
• Use an agile project management tool.
• Move slowly bust steadily - you won't be able to achieve it overnight, so try incrementally.
• Work with the auditor - get them to point out red flags
• Bring in outside help, such as a consultant with experience of achieving certifcation.