Entries by 'Suzanne Miller'

Mitigating Agile Adoption Risks: Organization Climate

Agile , Readiness & Fit Analysis 1 Comment »

Second in a Series on Readiness Fit Analysis for Adoption of Agile Methods
By Suzanne Miller
Senior Member of the Technical Staff
Acquisition Support Program

Suzanne MillerThe adoption of new practices, such as agile or any new practice for that matter, is a task that is best undertaken with both eyes open. There are often disconnects between the adopting organization’s current practice and culture and the new practices being adopted. This posting is the second installment in a series on Readiness & Fit Analysis (RFA), which is a model and method for understanding risks when contemplating or embarking on the adoption of new practices, in this case agile methods. The RFA method helps organizations understand the barriers and enablers to successful adoption that are present when an analysis is performed. The first post in this series outlined the principles of RFA and described the Acquisition Support Program’s work in extending RFA to support profiling and adoption risk identification to organizations that are adopting agile methods. This blog post continues the discussion with a more in-depth dive into one more of the six RFA categories that we have identified.

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Readiness & Fit Analysis

Acquisition , Agile , CMMI No Comments »

By Suzanne Miller,
Senior Member of the Technical Staff
Acquisition Support Program

Suzanne MillerAll software engineering and management practices are based on cultural and social assumptions. When adopting new practices, leaders often find mismatches between those assumptions and the realities within their organizations. The SEI has an analysis method called Readiness and Fit Analysis (RFA) that allows the profiling of a set of practices to understand their cultural assumptions and then to use the profile to support an organization in understanding its fit with the practices’ cultural assumptions.  RFA has been used for multiple technologies and sets of practices, most notably for adoption of CMMI practices. The method for using RFA and the profile that supports CMMI for Development adoption is found in Chapter 12 of CMMI Survival Guide: Just Enough Process Improvement. This blog post discusses a brief summary of the principles behind RFA and describes the SEI Acquisition Support Program’s work in extending RFA to support profiling and adoption risk identification for Department of Defense (DoD) and other highly-regulated organizations that are considering or are in the middle of adopting agile methods.

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