Mumbai University > Information Technology > Sem6 > Software Engineering

Marks: 5M

Year: Dec 2015

• The Capability Maturity Model (CMM) is a way to develop and refine an organization's processes. The first CMM was for the purpose of developing and refining software development processes.

• A maturity model is a structured collection of elements that describe characteristics of effective processes. A maturity model provides:

  • a place to start
  • the benefit of a community’s prior experiences
  • a common language and a shared vision
  • a framework for prioritizing actions
  • a way to define what improvement means for your organization

  A maturity model can be used as a benchmark for assessing different organizations for equivalent comparison. It describes the maturity of the company based upon the project the company is dealing with and the clients.

Levels of the CMM

There are five levels of the CMM:

1. Initial
2. Repeatable
3. Defined
4. Managed
5. Optimizing

Level 4 - Managed

• Using precise measurements, management can effectively control the software development effort. In particular, management can identify ways to adjust and adapt the process to particular projects without measurable losses of quality or deviations from specifications.
• At this level organization set a quantitative quality goal for both software process and software maintenance.
• Sub-processes are selected that significantly contribute to overall process performance. These selected sub-processes are controlled using statistical and other quantitative techniques.
• A critical distinction between maturity level 3 and maturity level 4 is the predictability of process performance. At maturity level 4, the performance of processes is controlled using statistical and other quantitative techniques, and is quantitatively predictable. At maturity level 3, processes are only qualitatively predictable.

Level 5 - Optimizing

• Focusing on continually improving process performance through both incremental and innovative technological improvements. Quantitative process-improvement objectives for the organization are established, continually revised to reflect changing business objectives, and used as criteria in managing process improvement.
• The effects of deployed process improvements are measured and evaluated against the quantitative process-improvement objectives.
• Both the defined processes and the organization’s set of standard processes are targets of measurable improvement activities.
• Process improvements to address common causes of process variation and measurably improve the organization’s processes are identified, evaluated, and deployed.
• Optimizing processes that are nimble, adaptable and innovative depends on the participation of an empowered workforce aligned with the business values and objectives of the organization.
• The organization’s ability to rapidly respond to changes and opportunities is enhanced by finding ways to accelerate and share learning.
• A critical distinction between maturity level 4 and maturity level 5 is the type of process variation addressed. At maturity level 4, processes are concerned with addressing special causes of process variation and providing statistical predictability of the results. Though processes may produce predictable results, the results may be insufficient to achieve the established objectives.
• At maturity level 5, processes are concerned with addressing common causes of process variation and changing the process (that is, shifting the mean of the process performance) to improve process performance (while maintaining statistical probability) to achieve the established quantitative process-improvement objectives.