When a Good Rating Doesn't Mean Much

The Risk Factor blogger Bob Charette, a risk management expert who consults with federal agencies on risk management, picked up yesterday's story on the deep trouble that the Census Bureau's handheld computer contract is in. In his blog post, he questions the credibility of the Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI®). Harris Corp.'s Government Communications Systems Division, which is the prime contractor on the $600 million handheld contract (now likely much more than $650 million after all the costs from changes, errors and delays are included), has a Maturity Level 3 rating. "The Level 3 rating denotes superior process maturity within the division's program management, engineering, quality assurance, and other disciplines, and achievement of this rating has become a competitive differentiator on many government programs," Charette quotes.

Charette wants to know: "At the very least, I think the division's CMMI rating may need to be re-evaluated, or maybe better, the U.S. government better start looking at what, if anything, SEI CMMI Level 3 actually means in practice."

Or it could mean, the customer, the Census Bureau, put too many demands on Harris -- so many, in fact, that no maturity designation, no matter how high, could have avoided the very problems that now threaten the viability of the U.S. census.