STC Quality SIG Article:
Definition and Summary of CMMI
CMMI means Capability Maturity Model Integration, which is replacing
the old CMMs. The project has involved a large number of people from
different organizations throughout the world. These organizations were
using a Capability Maturity Model (CMM) or multiple CMMs and were
interested in the benefits of developing an integration framework to aid in enterprise-wide process improvement.
The CMMI project work is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Defense
(DoD), specifically the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense:
Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics (OUSD/AT&L). Industry sponsorship
is provided by the Systems Engineering Committee of the National Defense
Industrial Association (NDIA).
Organizations from industry and government and the Software Engineering
Institute (SEI) joined together to develop the CMMI Framework, a set of
integrated CMMI models, a CMMI appraisal method, and supporting products.
These organizations donated the time of one or more of their people to
participate in the CMMI project.
The CMMI project team has been working to provide guidance that encourages
process improvement in organizations with any structure. Since 1991, CMMs
have been developed for a myriad of disciplines. Some of the most notable
include models for systems engineering, software engineering, software
acquisition, workforce management and development, and Integrated Product
and Process Development.
Although these models have proven useful to many organizations, the use of
multiple models has been problematic. Many organizations would like to
focus their improvement efforts across the disciplines within their
organizations. However, the differences among these discipline-specific
models, including their architecture, content, and approach, have limited
these organizations’ ability to focus their improvements successfully.
Further, applying multiple models that are not integrated within and
across an organization is costly in terms of training, appraisals, and improvement activities. A set of integrated models that
successfully addresses multiple disciplines and has integrated training
and appraisal support solves these problems.
The CMM Integration project was formed to sort out the problem of using
multiple CMMs. The CMMI Product Team’s mission was to combine three source models—(1) Capability Maturity Model for Software (SW-CMM) v2.0 draft C, (2) Electronic Industries Alliance Interim Standard (EIA/IS) 731, and (3)
Integrated Product Development Capability Maturity Model (IPD-CMM)
v0.98—into a single improvement framework for use by organizations
pursuing enterprise-wide process improvement.
Developing a set of integrated models has involved more than simply adding
existing model materials together. Using processes that promote consensus,
the CMMI Product Team has built a framework that accommodates multiple
disciplines and is flexible enough to support two different
representations (staged and continuous).
Using information from popular and well-regarded models as source
material, the CMMI Product Team created a cohesive set of integrated
models that can be adopted by those currently using other CMMs, as well as
by those new to the CMM concept.
CMMI version 0.2 was publicly reviewed and used in initial pilot
activities. Following release of that version, improvement was guided by
change requests from the public review, piloting organizations, and
various focus group sessions. The CMMI Product Team evaluated more than
3,000 change requests to create CMMI version 1.0. Shortly thereafter,
version 1.02 was released, which incorporated several minor improvements.
As with any release, however, the opportunity for further improvement
remained. Version 1.1 accommodates further improvements from early use as
well as more than 1,500 change requests.
A company who wishes to do business with the DoD has to have a CMMI rating
of at least level-3. Many additional government agencies and governments
outside the US are using CMMI as a standard by which to judge subcontractors.
About the author
Don Butterfield is working on CMMI documentation and has developed a model: CMMI Level-2 Project Documentation Model and CMMI Level-3 Project Documentation Model (.jpg files posted on this site.)
