I was privileged enough to work on People CMM during my association with KPMG, working with many clients in India and abroad. I worked quite a long period of time undertaking Advisory, Assessment and Training people using People CMM. I cannot stop myself saluting the model developers, who were so creatively put this forward for the larger community. The people who studied this model, people who adopted this model to improve their HR systems and those organizations who went for Assessment, will surely know the true potential of this model and its benefits.

Some Salient features

• The model has two versions - version 1.0 and version 2.0. The version 1.0 was released in the year 1995 and version 2.0 in the year 2001. There are nearly 1500 professionals across different industries who have given their inputs in making version 2.0 relevant as applicable to different industry segments.
   
• There are around 499 best practices in the model. Any organization can simply pick up their current HR policies and processes and see the existence of these practices in their policies and if it is unavailable they can introduce those practices as part of their policies.
   
• There are five levels in the model and there are 22 process Areas altogether.
   
• The structure of the model is divided into
  
  
  • Implementation focused practices
     
  • Institutionalization focused practices.
     
• The above categorization immensely helps organization to consider implementation of HR policies and also institutionalization of practices.
   
• The model has been translated into Japan, Chinese and Indian regional language like Kannada.
   
• People CMM has been adopted by different countries viz. US, Korea, China, Middle East, Japan, India, Australia to name a few.
   
• The following figure illustrates different levels of People CMM and different Process areas that are listed under each level.              

• Among the benefits of implementing PCMM for an organization are:
  
  
  • Top management: It is a framework they can refer to increase organizational Capability Development. The top management may be curious to know how to build the organization since organization is built through people, their knowledge and framework available to attract, develop, retain and motivate employees. It is also a model for CEOs to build their organization in a structured manner.
     
  • Line managers: Many managers these days struggle to manage people. Managing people is a very big subject in its own way. One of the research indicates that many managers use 2 or 3 ways to manage their people. However, there are 40 ways of managing people and that still needs to be exploited. There are 499 best practices which this model suggests for managing people. Apply it in your team on a day to day basis, and you will be able to notice the difference.
     

HR Head/Managers: Most of the HR heads/Managers are lost in their day to day operational issues. Expectations from top management and line function are very high from this function. This gives a very powerful tool for HR managers to develop their people practices in a very a structured manner. HR people also struggle with how to design a policy, implement a policy and institutionalize the policy. The model provides a framework to design, implement and institutionalize practices and also bring in advanced level of practices step by step.

How does an organization adopt this model

Based on my involvement working on this model , I would like to put forward few observations as below:-

• This model has an option whether these good practices can be implemented for the benefit alone and at the same time an organization can also go in for a formal Assessment using methodology designed by Software Engineering Institute. The method that was used earlier was called CBA-IPI Assessment methodology ( CMM based Appraisal for Internal process improvement). Now this methodology has been withdrawn by SEI and introduced new method since 2007 called SCAMPI method ( Standard CMMI Appraisal Method for process improvement )
   
• To begin with organization has to decide which level they should aim for - either improve their HR practices or formally go in for Assessment. Most of the organizations in India aim for Level 3 and then go for Level 5. The new SCAMPI method, does not allow organizations to directly go in for Level 5 implementation and Assessment, as the requirements from Level 4 upwards organization need to demonstrate many statistical evidence of how HR process is being statistically managed. Hence it requires many data points to indicate that process is stable. SCAMPI assessment also provides 3 years validity period for Assessment.
   
• Once the organization decides on the level, they need to form the following groups
  
  
  •  Sponsor
     
  •  Management Steering committee ( comprising of business heads and CEO)
     
  •  People Process Group ( Cross functional task force team to spear head the initiative with the help of an  expert identified internally or through external consultants)

  •  Process owner group.
    
    The above groups commit their time to ensure that the targeted level aimed by the organization is realized.
    
    Some of the key steps followed later on include:

    1. Training Process owners and few key managers on the Model. Sometimes it is advisable to have a top management orientation in terms of expectations at a broad level. Process owner orientation will be a detailed one, which will help them to understand the interpretation of each best practice, how it needs to be implemented, what are challenges in implementation etc.

    2. Diagnostic or Gap Analysis will be done keeping People CMM model as a benchmark and study the organization’s HR policies and processes to see the prevailing gaps. Post this Gap analysis report will presented to the above group with strengths and areas of improvement with a detailed action plan.

    3. Bridging gaps and evolving HR systems to be based on People CMM requirement. This would involve designing HR policies, processes, templates, establishing metrics, designing HR programs and plans based on model requirements, bringing in practices like job evaluation, competency model, streamlining job description, putting in place performance framework, Career framework just to name few. Once this is done, the policies will be rolled out and model provides guidance to institutionalize the polices and processes. All these needs to be validated through implementation records and interviewing managers and non- managers in the organization.

    4. Appraisal readiness review will be carried out to see whether organization is ready in terms of planning an assessment.
    
    5. Appraisal Planning : Lead Assessor certified by SEI can only conduct the Assessment. He will identify Assessment team from the organization and orient them on the model and also on the Assessment method. There will be a detailed document review which is called ( IDR- initial document review)

    6. SCAMPI Appraisal – This would include interviewing Process owners, Managers and non- Manager Group covering nearly 10-20% of the organization size. Each best practice in People CMM will be looked at from three aspects, whether all the defined policies have been implemented through implementation records. Is there any direct evidence for implementation. What are the indirect evidences and lastly through affirmations or interviews from process owner, Manager and non- manager group. For each of the interviews an observation will be written and classified it as direct evidence, indirect evidence and affirmations. Once the appraisal is completed there will be a rating process whether organization is assessed at that particular level. 

Some of the issues PCMM model tries to deal with include

• Proactively preparing an organization to build talent so that it can capture market opportunities.
   
• The model attempts to look at from People, process angle and builds linkage to business performance. In other words it emphasizes people capability and process capability can influence business performance.
   
• Addresses workload, burnout issues and work-life balance issues
   
• Attracting, retaining, developing and motivating talent
   
• Attrition issues.
   
• Integrates people, process and knowledge used while executing any process and encourages reuse.

(This model is developed by Software Engineering Institute, Pittsburgh associated with Carnegie Mellon University.

The site of Software Engineering Institute is http://www.sei.cmu.edu/
You can download the model using link http://www.sei.cmu.edu/library/abstracts/reports/09tr003.cfm

If the reader of this article is keen to have more information about this model, they can write to : aravinda.prabhu@mbholdingco.com