Editor’s note: Brian Gallagher PhD, CHMLA, PMP, CISA, CMMC-RP
Owner and Principal Consultant BG Solutions and Services LLC, one of the lead organizers of the 2024 CMMI Conference, to take place 8-10 May in Phoenix, Arizona, USA, recently visited with the ISACA Now blog to highlight the CMMI conference program and added benefits of sharing a site with the ISACA Conference North America. The following is a Q&A interview with Gallagher, an ISACA Certified High Maturity Lead Appraiser with over 30 years of experience applying advanced systems and software engineering and program management methodologies to help organizations solve their most challenging problems.
What excites you most about the upcoming conference from a programming standpoint?
This is an exciting year for CMMI! We've ended 2023 exceeding 5,000 benchmark appraisals for the first time ever, CMMI V3.0 was released adding new content and domains, and the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) use of CMMI to encourage improvement in the US medical device industry is experiencing incredible growth. More importantly, this is the first opportunity since the end of the pandemic for the CMMI user community to get together and share their firsthand experiences and success stories that have made CMMI the premier process improvement approach worldwide. I’m looking forward to seeing friends and colleagues in-person once again!
What type of feedback have you gathered from the community since the release of CMMI 3.0, and what more can attendees expect to learn about these updates at the conference?
With the release of any update to CMMI, there’s always a bit of apprehension and curiosity. The good news is, that while CMMI 3.0 is a major upgrade, the impact to existing users of CMMI is minimal, and in most cases transparent. If you use CMMI to help improve your Development, Service Delivery, or Supplier Management processes, and you intend to continue to use the model for this purpose, you will probably not notice any changes. However, you now have more options to explore additional content in the model to include a total of eight domains. You still have Development, Services, and Supplier Management, but you also have improvement guidance and the ability to benchmark your capabilities in the areas of Data, People, Safety and Security. In addition, an exciting new domain called Virtual provides guidance on how to manage creative talent who are geographically dispersed: the new normal for many of us.
ISACA will also have its conference going on in Phoenix at this time – what do you see as the additional opportunities there for CMMI conference attendees?
I was fortunate to attend the last two annual ISACA conferences in the US: 2022 was held in New Orleans and 2023 was held in Boston. The biggest takeaway for me was that ISACA knows how to throw a party! The energy and excitement generated by the global ISACA community is amazing! In addition, the keynote speakers are world-class. The CMMI conference and the ISACA conference are not just co-located physically. As a CMMI conference attendee, you get to partake in both conferences. The keynote speakers are shared, the festivities are shared, and if you find content that aligns to your needs, you can attend sessions from both conferences. It’s like getting two conferences for the price of one!
What can attendees expect from the panel sessions that are taking place?
We are fortunate to have the experts from ISACA’s CMMI Performance Solutions team in Phoenix to share the changes from V2.0 to V3.0. We’ll also hear from medical device companies detailing how they are using CMMI to improve performance and reduce risk in their highly regulated industry. You'll be able to hear lessons learned from early adopters of the new Security Domain and how CMMI has helped them align and prepare for the upcoming launch of the DoD’s Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC). Finally, come with all your toughest questions in an “Ask me Anything!” session with ISACA’s Leadership and their CMMI Performance Solutions team.
What else is top of mind for you from a CMMI perspective as we draw closer to this event?
The future is bright for CMMI and process improvement professionals. The use of the CMMI worldwide continues to grow and expand into new and innovative areas. This is the place to not only learn about the future of CMMI, but to actively engage and shape that future with the next generation of CMMI professionals. I’m looking forward to hearing your stories in Phoenix!
