Upcoming CMMI Training Classes

Upcoming Events

More of jrd200x's events

Broadsword CEO Jeff Dalton to speak at SEI's SEPG 2011 Conference!

Broadword's President and CEO, Jeff Dalton, has been selected by the SEPG program committee to speak at SEPG 2011 in Portland, OR in March.  Jeff's presentation, "The Agile SCAMPI: Taming the Savage Beast" will discuss ways of approaching SCAMPI appraisals with agility by adopting iterative and incremental practices and an agile mindset.


Jeff is an SEI Certified SCAMPI Lead Appraiser and CMMI Instructor.


For more information email info@broadswordsolutions.com


www.broadswordsolutions.com

Jeff Dalton to speak at Dayton SPIN

Jeff Dalton, President and CEO of Broadsword, will be the featured speaker at the November 30th meeting of the Dayton, OH SPIN. The Software Process Improvement Network, or SPIN, is a community of practitioners who are passionate about improving the state of software engineering.

Jeff's presentation, "CMMI+Agile: Partners in driving radical change" will explore the science around change and how we can conquer it with agility.

For more informatioon about the Dayton SPIN go to www.daytonspin.org.
For more information on Jeff Dalton go to www.broadswordsolutions.com

Broadsword's 2011 Class Schedule is taking shape!

For information about our Road Show class schedule for 2011 click on:

http://broadsword-events.eventbrite.com/

We will be offering two classes this tour:

1. Introduction to CMMI v1.3
2. CMMI v1.3 Upgrade Training

The first two cities in 2011 are Troy, MI and Austin, TX

For rmore information you can also go to http://www.broadswordsolutions.com/

The new CMMI v1.3 training class has finally been released!

New CMMI v1.3 Training Classes are scheduled!

The new v1.3 CMMI is class has been released by the SEI and Broadsword is licensed to deliver it!

To all of those who have called and asked about when the CMMI v1.3 class will be ready, we have two on the schedule!  Save 30% if you register here.

January 19-21, 2011 in Troy, MI

"Introduction to CMMI v1.3"

Central Michigan University - Troy Campus

To register click here

February 16-18 in Austin, TX

"Introduction to CMMI v1.3"

Thompson Conference Center at the University of Texas

To register click here

To see a list of all of our classes for 2011 click here

Register today and save 30% on this important new class!

This 3-day SEI Authorized course provides attendees with a detailed overview of the Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI).  It provides systems engineers, software developers, project managers, and process professionals with an understanding of how to use the CMMI, a model that is the defacto standard and leading framework for software process improvement.

Your instructor is Jeff Dalton, an Certified SCAMPI Lead Appraiser, Certified CMMI Instructor, Candidate SCAMPI Appraiser Observer, author, and consultant with years of real-world experience with the CMMI in all types of organizations.  Jeff has taught this class to well over 1000 students and has received an aggregate satisfaction score of 4.97 out of 5 from his students.

Completion of this course is recommended for anyone with an interest in improving software and engineering product development processes, and is required for those who wish to participate in a CMM SCAMPI Appraisal, those who wish to enroll in Intermediate Concepts of CMMI, and those who wish to undergo CMMI SCAMPI Lead Appraiser training or CMMI Instructor training.      

Why come to THIS class instead of that other guy's?

- Your instructor, Jeff Dalton, is also a Certified Lead Appraiser and will be revealing his Appraisal secrets gathered from conducting appraisals at dozens of clients!

- Jeff was voted #1 Speaker at several international conferences - including the SEI's SEPG conference

- Two Broadsword exclusive modules are included - one on Agile implementation - that no one else offers!

- You may win the FREE iPod!  Register today!

www.broadswordsolutions.com

CMMI+Agile Article in Dr. Dobbs: Ambler calls authors "bravest group of people in the IT industry"

http://www.drdobbs.com/architecture-and-design/212501388;jsessionid=FNLIDC1RTORI5QE1GHPSKH4ATMY32JVN

Agile CMMI: Complimentary or Oxymoronic?

Recently the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) published a technical note entitled CMMI or Agile? Why Not Embrace Both!, co-authored by Hillel Glazer, Jeff Dalton, David Anderson, Mike Konrad, and Sandy Shrum. The Agile-CMMI Five (AC5), as I like to call them, are likely the bravest group of people in the IT industry in their daring attempt to bring together two groups of people seemingly at opposite ends of the software-process-religion spectrum. Although it would be easy to denounce the AC5 as a collection of Satan-worshipping kitten torturers (and extremists from both camps have pretty much done that already), the reality is that this publication is a thoughtful discussion of a topic that is important to a large number of organizations within the IT industry.

For the entire text of this article go to:  http://www.drdobbs.com/architecture-and-design/212501388;jsessionid=FNLIDC1RTORI5QE1GHPSKH4ATMY32JVN

Broadsword President Jeff Dalton interviewed on CIO site on Agile and CMMI

Full text of this article is found at:

http://advice.cio.com/executivebrief/cmmi_and_agile_opposites_attract

CMMI and Agile: Opposites Attract

POSTED BY: ExecutiveBrief in Best Practices TOPIC: IT Organization Management CURRENT RATING:  COMMENT: 1

The myths surrounding the compatibility of CMMI and Agile have recently been debunked by SEI. Learn how these seemingly opposing strategies can be paired to foster dramatic improvements in business performance!

Despite the perception that CMMI best practices and Agile development methods are at odds with each other, new research suggests just the opposite train of thought. In fact, CMMI and Agile champions can benefit from using both methods within organizations - with the potential to dramatically improve business performance.

Why Now?

SEI published a technical note in late 2008 entitled: CMMI or Agile: Why Not Embrace Both? Written by SEI staff members and industry experts, this technical note thoroughly addressed this topic. As you know, CMMI and Agile methods involve two different technologies; as a result, each technology has its own community of loyal adopters. Mike Konrad, a Senior Member of SEI’s Technical Staff, concurs and states that the natural tendency is to form specific “camps” around different methods. However, according to the technical note, this discord is not healthy for the software engineering profession.

“As the two communities continued to increase in size, it seemed like the appropriate time to address this issue head on in this technical note,” Konrad explains. “Also, it was an excellent opportunity for us at SEI to dispel some myths and set the record straight about these two methodologies.”

According to Jeffrey Dalton, the President of the Michigan-based Software Process Improvement firm Broadsword, different triggers spurred the growth of CMMI and Agile methods. For instance, CMMI is driven by a particular organization’s needs, and adopted in a top-down fashion, whereas Agile is very organic in its adoption process. Therefore, according to Dalton, it was inevitable that there would be a crossover between these two approaches because the adoption was getting larger.

“We are starting to see collisions as the younger folks who practice Agile in an organic manner start to move up in their organizations, and see the influence that CMMI has on Agile’s organic process,” Dalton says. “Previously, there was confusion concerning just how these two methods could co-exist in the same environment - but as it turns out, we know now that these two methods can function together.”

In fact, for over two years now, Dalton has considered the issue of CMMI and Agile coming together. Additionally, as more people started to ask questions about this issue, he decided that it was time to address the issue of these processes coming together more seriously.

Furthermore, Dalton admits that the Agile community does not agree with this viewpoint. To fully embrace the benefits of the CMMI and Agile methods co-existing, the Agile community needs to learn more about CMMI. However, since one tenet of the Agile methods is to embrace change a little at a time, there is the possibility that the Agile community will embrace this synergistic viewpoint in the future - as small changes are made.

Setting the Record Straight

As mentioned previously, the authors, Konrad, Dalton, Sandy Shrum, Hillel Glazer, and David Anderson, released the technical note in an attempt to set the record straight about these two processes. Consequently, Konrad knew that this controversial topic would delight some people while it would anger others—because that is simply the way it is with CMMI and Agile.

“It was an opportunity for us at SEI to dispel some myths and ‘apologize’, in a sense, to some people in the Agile community,” Konrad says. “Further, since each process attempts to embrace technology to get the desired result, we do have more in common than people may think.”

To read the rest of this article go to:

http://advice.cio.com/executivebrief/cmmi_and_agile_opposites_attract

New blog post on Scrum and CMMI

New post on how Scrum teams might approach the Monitoring and Control of their process (CMMI GP2.8) at www.asktheCMMIAppraiser.com

CMMI v1.3 is here! Download it here for free!

Dear Readers,

The new version of the CMMI, v1.3, has been released and is available for use!  Download it today at: http://www.broadswordsolutions.com/

Version 1.3 has several changes that will impact you.  We will be posting a Delta document in the next few days as we perform the analysis.

What you need to know about CMMI v1.3

Our friends at the SEI are sponsoring a Webinar on "what you need to know about CMMI v1.3.  This new version of the CMMI is coming out in November, so log on and learn some stuff.

Want to view this email as a webpage? Click here

Date: Tuesday, October 26, 2010  Time: 1:30 PM - 2:30 PM EDT Cost: Free About the Webinar In this webinar, Eileen Forrester will discuss the release of CMMI V1.3. All three CMMI models, CMMI-ACQ, CMMI-DEV, and CMMI-SVC, will be released as technical reports on November 1. A series of other products, such as training, SCAMPI upgrades, revised books, and improved certification procedures will be launched month by month throughout 2011. Attend this webinar to get an understanding of what's available (and when) to support your effective use of CMMI V1.3. Learn about sunsetting of V1.2, reviewing the changes to the SCAMPI method, qualifying for the appraiser and instructor roles, and available upgrade training. We will also be seeking your questions and input. In addition, Forrester will describe additional plans for CMMI-SVC in the coming year, and opportunities for you to participate. About the Speaker Eileen Forrester is the manager of the CMMI for Services program at the Software Engineering Institute, and the lead author of the Addison Wesley book, CMMI for Services, Guidelines for Superior Service. She was the co-chair of the International Process Research Consortium and the editor of the IPRC Process Research Framework. Forrester is the developer of TransPlant, a transition-planning process, and her current research area is in process-oriented approaches to service delivery, technology change, risk management, and emergent system types. These approaches include GAIT, the CMMI for Services, OCTAVE, MDA, and multi-model improvement approaches. She has more than 30 years of experience in technology transition, strategic planning, process improvement, communication planning, and managing product, service, and non-profit organizations.   After registering you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the Webinar. System Requirements PC-based attendees Required: Windows® 2000, XP Home, XP Pro, 2003 Server, Vista Macintosh®-based attendees Required: Mac OS® X 10.4 (Tiger®) or newer Space is limited. Reserve your Webinar seat here. Please feel free to pass along this invitation to your colleagues.

Broadsword to offer new CMMI+Scrum for those wanting the benefits of both!

For all those agilistas that are struggling with CMMI - or you CMMI fans who are considering adopting Scrum, Broadsword will be releasing a CMMI+Scrum workshop in early 2011.

This two day workshop will focus on the components of both CMMI and Scrum, and will provide integrated, hands-on exercises and case studies to help get immediate value out of both.

For more information contact training@broadswordsolutions.com

http://www.broadswordsolutions.com/

BSC Welcomes some new clients to the family

Broadsword welcomes Compuware Corporation (Detroit) and Pi Shurlok (Plymouth) to the BSC CMMI Family!  Compuware is a global IT services company, and Pi Shurlok designs and manufactures electronics equipment for the automotive industry.

With all of the travelling we have all been doing in the last two years it's nice to be working more in Detroit again.  These two new clients will join LG's Compact Power, Teradyne, and Johnson Controls to round-out our Detroit area business (making our consultants very happy).

New look for "Ask the CMMI Appraiser"

We're released a newly redesigned "Ask The CMMI Appraiser."  I hope you like the new look!

We're committed to giving you useful, entertaining, and AD-FREE information about CMMI and process improvement.  Click on over to www.asktheCMMIAppraiser.com.

Thanks for reading!

www.broadswordsolutions.com

SEI Announces new fees for CMMI Product Line

The SEI announced today new rates for its CMMI License Fees.

The following fees are increased:

- CMMI Instructor Support Fee
- Introduction to CMMI Attendee License Fee
- SCAMPI per-Appraisal Fee

The SEI tells us we can pass these on to our clients.  Nice.  I'm glad no one has to worry about it.

www.broadswordsolutions.com

CMMI Version 1.3 to be released in November

We're fresh from our trip to Las Vegas to learn all about CMMI version 1.3.  The new and improved version will be released in November 2010, the new book will be out in March 2011, and CMMI v1.2 will be sunset in November 2011.

What does this mean for you?

- if you took the CMMI v1.2 class you'll need to take the v1.3 upgrade training course offered by the SEI online, or take it from an SEI Partner that is offering the course.

- If you're planning an appraisal for late 2011 you should be looking at CMMI v1.3 now so you understand the differences.

If you're going to be on a SCAMPI Appraisal team (and especially if you've done it in the past) you'll need to take the new SCAMPI v1.3 Team Training class.

www.broadswordsolutions.com

Broadsword to offer Process Architecture Workshop

Due to intense demand (and need!) Broadsword is now offering a 2-day intensive Workshop to assist clients in designing, developing, and deploying an effective Process Architecture.

A Process Architecture provides companies with the building blocks and foundation they need to successfully benefit from a continuous improvement program using the CMMI.

Broadsword also offers workshops for Measurement, Complex Decision Making, and Process Quality. These workshops are designed to bring together the appropriate stakeholders in a 2-day facilitated environment to quickly develop and effective process that would typically take weeks or months to develop.

Broadsword to close out busy 2010

Dear Readers,

Thanks to you, Broadsword had the best year ever with numerous consulting, appraisal, and training engagements.

So far we've delivered eight "Introduction to CMMI" training classes, and a large number of SCAMPI A, B, and C Appraisals.

But what we do the most, and what we love to do the most, is our process improvement consulting using our "AgileCMMI" methodology.

We recently welcomed Laura Adkins, the latest addition to our team! She'll be helping out with our nationwide training tour, as well as serving clients as a CMMI and Process Improvement Consultant.