Welcome to my blog

My name is Michel Biedermann. I’m originally from the French-speaking part of Switzerland, but now live in the United States. Currently, I work for the Business Consulting Services (BCS) division of IBM.

I’m most interested in a new field of software development that attempts to combine two apparently contradictory methodologies: the Agile process which favors relying purely on the ability of individual team members and CMMI (Capability Maturity Model Integration) which instead trusts a process and conformance to this process. This new methodology is referred to as Agile CMMI and is probably best represented right now by Microsoft's MSF 4.0 based CMMI module of the Visual Studio Team Services (VSTS) platform.

I will be blogging about a variety of technology issues, including the software development life cycle (SDLC), the alignment of tactical with strategic business goals, my life at IBM and other musings as the mood strikes me. I will try to make sense of and assess the impact of concepts like CMMI, Agile, LEAN, FDD, TDD, SDLC, project management, continuous process improvement, the importance and ROI of quality, etc. Mix in a little balanced scorecard, development metrics measurements, Six-sigma, Peter Drucker, and maybe even some Jimmy Buffet, and you pretty much get the picture of what I plan to discuss.

Whether you agree or disagree with my point of view, I ask you to take a minute to communicate with me. Let me know what YOU think: what has worked for you, what hasn’t, and most importantly why!