CMMI - Everything We Want To Know About

Glossary:

Ø CMM - Capability Maturity Model
Ø CMMI - Capability Maturity Model Integration
Ø SEI - The Software Engineering Institute (SEI) is a federally funded research and development center sponsored by the U.S. Department of Defense and operated by Carnegie Mellon University.
Ø PA – Process Area(s) –is activities where Software organizations and Projects have to focus in the path towards excellence and maturity.
Ø DOD – Department Of Defence
Ø SPC Charts – Statistical Process Control
Ø IPM – Integrated Project Management
Ø IPPD – Integrated Process And Product Development

Definition:

Capability Maturity Model Integration is a way to assess and describe an organization's software development process, compare it against industry standards and help the organization refine and improve that process.

Backgroud:

Back in mid -1980’s US DOD depended heavily on the external venders for their entire software/hardware such as Graphical Operating Systems. Because there were stringent environmental and reliability requirements, DOD needed a way to determine whether contractors could provide software on time, within budget and to specifications.

They found a way out in CMM conceptualized by Carnegie Mellon University's Software Engineering Institute. CMM was first released in 1990 and by 2001, many disparate elements (CMM for software, CMM for Systems Engineering, CMM for Integrated process and product development etc) were brought together into a single initiative known as CMMI, or Capability Maturity Model Integration.
The structure and essence of CMMI is same as that of CMM.

Level 1: Initial or Ad-hoc.
Level 2: Managed. There are 7 PAs. PAs at this level look at project planning and execution (Basic project management)
Level 3: Defined. There are 13 PAs here. Life cycle processes and Organizational processes are the focus areas here.
Level 4: Quantitatively Managed. There are 2 PAs that deal with project management with quantitative data and statistical process control. (SPC)
Level 5: Optimizing. There are 2 PAs. The focus is on continuous improvement.

How to remember all the levels of CMMI? Well here is a way: Say aloud in one breath
I M Definitely Quality Oriented (I M D Q O). Mnemonics have always been proved useful ;-)

Initial, Managed, Defined, Quantitative Management, Optimizing

The diagram below is a quick snap shot about all we need to know regarding CMMI. Why I say so? Because as technical persons, we don’t require to know all the names or jargons by heart, but at least be aware of. In case we really need to talk about CMMI, we will do so for 15 minutes (this could be for an interview)

(unable to post the diagram, will update it later - sorry!!!!!)

Highlights:

Ø Level 1 processes are ad-hoc meaning that they are not strictly followed. Product Quality is difficult to predict. The projects are purely person dependent.

Ø Level 2 focuses on building strong project management processes in the project. Functional and non-functional/trace-ability between requirements and other work products/requirements should be documented. At high level, it includes Requirement management and requirement change management. Project Plan is prepared and is tracked against this plan in its execution – status or milestone reports. Quality Audits should start at early stages of the project.

Ø Level 3 processes are defined at the organization level. Information and artifacts of previous projects are available for reuse within the organization through mechanisms of knowledge sharing. It also gives guidelines on how the processes must be tailored to suit individual project need. Requirement Development is a PA at level 3 where as Req. Management is a PA at level 2 – a checklist should be in place.

Ø At Level 4, performance of process is quantitatively predictable. Quality and process performances are understood in statistical terms and are managed throughout the life of the processes. QPM gives us direction to measure and manage project performance in terms of measurable data. Having a good QPM structure helps the organization in having better control, better management information and improved estimation and tracking.

Ø At Level 5, the essence is how effectively an organization can make continuous change to its processes and technology that result in incremental and innovative improvements.

Ø One thing to note here is that collecting measurements and improvement areas are inherent part of all PAs

Ø 2 PAs at level 3 (Integrated Teaming and Organizational Environment for Integration) have strong flavor from People CMM, although PCMM is not today integrated in CMMI

phew, now that was something ... see ya soon...I definitely hope this is useful...

Rajal