CMMI L5 Nemesis - PPBs and PPMs

PPBs (Process Performance Baselines) and PPMs (Process Performance Models) - have you ever heard these two terms?

If the above terms PPBs and PPMs sound Latin and Greek to a person who claims to possess process improvement expertise to a level more than "reasonable" then the person must admit being immature as far as understanding and applying CMMI high maturity is concerned.

Process Performance Baselines and Models in CMMI - PPBs and PPMs

It won't be unfair to say that PPBs and PPMs can be considered as the proverbial nemesis for any organization interested in being a CMMI level 5 organization.

It must be carefully noted that the phrase used in the earlier sentence is "being a CMMI level 5" rather than "getting a CMMI level 5".

At level 4, the organization is expected to develop PPBs and PPMs and the use them for managing its work.

And at level 5, the organization is expected to use the PPBs and PPMs for improving its process and ultimately its business performance.

Though PPBs and PPMs add tremendous value at level 4 itself their real power gets demonstrated at level 5.

The success of PPBs and PPMs in a true sense depends on two critical factors:

• granularity and quality of data collected along with the performance of activities (doing an activity and collecting data should be seen as integral tasks)
• genuine attempt by the organization to use data-based process improvement (process improvement should add value to business by enhancing operational efficiency and hence the organization's competitive positioning in the market)

PPBs and PPMs are actually simple concepts.

PPB is essentially the characterization of the performance of a process "as it was in the recent past".

Whereas, PPM is essentially the characterization of the performance of a process "as it is expected to be in the near future".

PPBs are based on statistical concepts like mean, standard deviation, statistical process control limits, percentiles, etc. and reflect the historical performance of a process and may truly do so provided the granularity and quality of data collected is appropriate.

PPMs are based on statistical concepts like statistical modeling, time series analysis, tests of hypothesis, etc. and reflect the future performance of a process but may not truly do so even if the granularity and quality of historical data collected is appropriate.

The above might happen if the process undergoes changes with respect to its inherent behavior or the implementation of the process varies significantly from the typical way it used to be implemented.

In situations where the process behavior depends on subjective elements the above two occurrences are expected to be the norm rather than exception.

The most common example is any process which depends on human intellect/creativity (like software development, arts, etc.) or manual operations (like plumbing, painting , etc.)

For software development since the intervention and influence of human intellect is so much a part of the whole process the challenge of being able to make use of PPMs in an effective manner is expected to be a natural one.

However, it in no way means that software development is unpredictable.

Business and sound engineering demand predictability of the outcome when an activity is performed.

Software development needs to mature into software engineering and CMMI high maturity offers the ways and means to make the transformation of software development from being an art to engineering!