The Benefits of Combining CMMI and Scrum Testing

June 1, 2016
Team SQC, Uncategorized

Capability Maturity Model Integration and Scrum testing can be used as a pair to send your development team to the next level and open up significant benefits. 

Agile teams have a number of processes and QA tools to explore to help create successful applications. While these items introduce complexity to development efforts, many can be combined and leveraged together to benefit the team and projects across the board. Capability Maturity Model Integration and Scrum testing, for instance, can be used as a pair to send your development team to the next level and open up significant benefits. Let's look at why this coupling is so advantageous and how teams can implement it for their own gains.

 Taking a Closer Look

Before we get to the specific benefits of CMMI and Scrum testing, we first need to take a closer look at what these practices actually mean and where they intersect. Scrum is essentially a subsection of agile product development where teams are focused on all aspects of the product, according to Guru99. Scrum is different from legacy methods because it has shortened release cycles, or sprints, that are adaptable to changing scope. Scrum testing is marked by user and requirement stories and ensuring that deliverables are ready after each sprint.

On the other side of this combination is the CMMI, which is essentially composed of best practices for software development processes. CIO contributor Lynn Greiner noted that this framework covers everything about measuring, monitoring and managing these systems. CMMI came up as a means to provide products and solutions that would reduce complexity and cost across the software development infrastructure.

How They Link Up

CMMI is much like Scrum in the sense that teams must be able to understand and use new practices and test management software, creating an environment of constant adaptation. According to a paper by Systematic, the combination of these processes is a major force that not only helps achieve flexibility but does so in a disciplined way. CMMI helps to identify and proactively eliminate risks and gives details for quality goals, providing objectives for Scrum testing to aim for.

"CMMI provides insight into what processes are needed to maintain a disciplined, mature organization capable of predicting and improving performance of the organization and projects," Systematic stated. "Scrum provides guidance for efficient management of projects in a way that allows for high flexibility and adaptability. When mixing the two, a magic potion emerges, where the mindset from Scrum ensures that processes are implemented efficiently while embracing change, and CMMI ensures that all relevant processes are considered with proper discipline."

The Benefits

This partnership elicits two major benefits - higher productivity and increased predictability - which are both major priorities for development and QA teams. In fact, as Greiner reported, organizations saw an average 62 percent change in productivity and an average 50 percent increase in quality over time from implementing CMMI and Scrum testing. These advantages will be a significant boost to QA management efforts and help ensure that agile methods are being supported.

Software development is becoming more complex over time, but with the combination of CMMI and Scrum testing, teams can gain higher predictability and productivity. These benefits will be critical to continue leveraging optimal testing efforts and creating quality applications.

 

Published at DZone with permission of Kyle Nordeen

The Agile Zone is brought to you in partnership with Zephyr. Learn more about the implementation of a Test Management system to automate business processes is a strategic investment for any development and QA project team.