Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Intellectual ...

Ronny Gey
Table 1: Characterization <strong>of</strong> research sites and interviewees
A-Suppliers B-Retailers C-Bankers
Sector Automotive technology Retail Finance/ banking
Area <strong>of</strong> s<strong>of</strong>tware dev. Electronics/ electronic
control units
Number <strong>of</strong> employees
(total)
Number <strong>of</strong> employees in
s<strong>of</strong>tware dev.
S<strong>of</strong>tware and services
to <strong>the</strong> retail sector
Application banking s<strong>of</strong>tware
for internal and external
customers
ca. 5.000 ca. 3'000 ca. 20.000
ca. 3.000 ca. 500 ca. 300
Number <strong>of</strong> interviews 9 7 6
4. Findings
4.1 A-Suppliers
A-Suppliers produces electronic control units for <strong>the</strong> automotive supplier industry. They employ about
3000 system developers with a strong focus on s<strong>of</strong>tware development. The CMMI journey started in
1999 when a department leader strived <strong>the</strong> idea <strong>of</strong> process improvement:
“I think our big success factor for <strong>the</strong> implementation was really that we didn't want to introduce
CMM, we wanted to improve our SW quality. That was an extreme important
driver [….] ” (A3:63)
Even though external customers were also demanding for <strong>the</strong> certification at that time, A-Suppliers
took CMMI foremost as an important driver for <strong>the</strong>ir quality emphasizing <strong>the</strong> improvement aspect <strong>of</strong> it
ra<strong>the</strong>r than seeing it as means to fulfil customer demands. Therefore an elaborate and slow preparation
and implementation was chosen: “[…] So we wanted to have it in <strong>the</strong> whole organisation. Slowly
and not implemented everything which is written in <strong>the</strong> book [.…] So we did it <strong>the</strong> slow way.” (A1:109)
While doing so <strong>the</strong>y complied with <strong>the</strong> spirit <strong>of</strong> CMMI as SPI approach. When it came to <strong>the</strong> assessment,
<strong>the</strong>y were even thinking to refuse an unexpected extra level:
“We made assessment in <strong>the</strong> end <strong>of</strong> 2003. And we strived for level 2. And <strong>the</strong> day before
<strong>the</strong> announcement <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> result, this department manager which was <strong>the</strong>n also <strong>the</strong> project
manager […] said [...] we have really a problem [....] We will get level 3 and I am not
sure if we are mature enough to get this level now.” (A3:63)
They got level 3 certified and an entire process group was established aiming for <strong>the</strong> newly introduced
CMMI certification which <strong>the</strong>y again achieved after a single assessment in <strong>the</strong> end <strong>of</strong> 2004. But this
time <strong>the</strong>ir focus lied more on achieving <strong>the</strong> level than improving <strong>the</strong>ir quality:
“So in that year, we focused pretty much on <strong>the</strong> level. And we have seen it in <strong>the</strong> quality.
[...] after hunting <strong>the</strong> CMMI level it was a little bit decreasing again.” (A3:67)
The improvement aspect obviously played a minor role and <strong>the</strong> quality decreased. They referred to
this practice as level hunting and it “ […] does not really lead to good results. So it is not just <strong>the</strong> level,
it is <strong>the</strong> things behind” (A3:79). This certain practice is not intended by <strong>the</strong> designers <strong>of</strong> CMMI as SPI
standard:
“So, well, most people still don't understand, even nowadays. They require CMMI like a
standard. But CMMI [...] is not a standard. It is […] an improvement model. And if I find
out, I have a problem somewhere, CMMI or <strong>the</strong> model helps me to improve something.
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