Is CMMI still relevant?

Not Any more, well at-least not as relevant as it was a decade or two back

Why do I think so? 

Fundamentally, any innovation or improvement (be it product or process), is envisioned and adapted, to solve an existing problem or exploring new opportunities. So the founding fathers of CMMI were surely trying to solve a problem that was prevalent those days.

So what problem did they solve?

In the Late 70’s & early 80’s Software Development projects spanned multiple years and huge programs were split to multiple projects and sub-contracted to multiple vendors.  The enormous size and complexity of the tasks resulted in lot of wastage of $$$ due to delayed and cancelled projects.  (Read: Mythical Man-Month).  To arrest this problem, the US Government, Industry and Academics got together and created a process model which would help Assess the process maturity of the contracted organizations, thus improving the predictability and increase the confidence towards meeting committed Schedule & Quality. Of course this evolved over a period of 6 years, between 1985 to 1991 undergoing multiple iterations. (for a brief on the history of CMMI see:  “A history of the Capability Maturity Model” by Mark C. Paulk). Subsequently, It became the de-facto Assessment of Organizational Capability & Maturity at delivering software to customers on Time & with Quality.

So why is not relevant anymore?

I would argue on three grounds

a) The Problem that CMM intended to solve does not exist anymore. Today’s projects do not span such durations, and our confidence levels have significantly improved. (Compared to early 90’s) .

b) In economic terms the marginal value that CMMI Certification provided to a Organization, (against an org. that is not certified) was significantly higher in 90’s and it is continually reducing. (Law of diminishing returns) .

c) Today’s problems are of completely different nature and complexity, and our Processes needs to be assessed for capability to meet today’s challenges.

So what are today’s Problems?

The rate of change in Technology, Consumer preferences and Market is exponentially higher than what it was 2 decades back.  Organizations are now scrambling to be adaptive to these changes & exploit the market and existing resources, without losing focus on Innovations. Hence companies today require having Adaptive & flexible processes.  The processes themselves should help support maximizing value to customers while improving continuously.  They should support and nurture Innovations to explore new market opportunities. 

Any assessment of Organizational Capability or Maturity should assess their ability to be Innovative and operate effectively in an environment of constant flux while staying profitable.