The Capability Maturity Model (CMM) in software engineering is a model of the maturity of the capability of certain business processes. A maturity model can be described as a structured collection of elements that describe certain aspects of maturity in an organization, and aids in the definition and understanding of an organization's processes. The Capability Maturity Model was originally applied as a tool for objectively assessing the ability of government contractors' processes to perform a contracted software project. Though it comes from the area of software development, it is also being applied as a generally applicable model to assist in understanding the process capability maturity of organizations in diverse areas; for example in software engineering, system engineering, project management, software maintenance, risk management, system acquisition, information technology, personnel management. It has been used extensively for avionics software and government projects around the world.
In this part we will introduce the concept of the Capability Maturity Model (CMM) and illustrate the value that this model can provide to an enterprise. We will also explain the CMM key concepts through each of the six levels.
Key CMM Concepts
First it is important to understand the five key concepts. These concepts are Consistency, Repeatable, Transferable, Quantitative and Qualitative.
When an IT activity is Consistently performed it means that the task is performed much more frequently than it is not performed. For example, if the majority of your company's IT projects use written project plans then this activity would be performed consistently. It is important to note that consistency does not address quality or value that the task provided. Therefore, some IT staff will prepare written project plans using Microsoft Project, others will use Microsoft Excel and others will write them out by hand.
Repeatable refers to an IT activity that provides value and is followed by a particular team project within the company. For example, a data warehousing team may have a standard method to build a project plans (tool, level of detail, resource naming…).
Transferable means that the IT activity is standardized and followed throughout the company. As a result, the success of this task is transferable across groups within the company. For instance, all project plans throughout an organization would be standardized, formatted consistently and have the same level of granularity.
Quantitative refers to the measuring of an IT activity. For example, the time it takes to build each project plan would be measured and captured.
Qualitative refers to how well a task was accomplished. In our example, we would see if the project plan was accurate, followed by the team…
CMM Levels
The CMM is designed to be an easy to understand methodology for ranking a company's IT related activities. The CMM has six levels from 0 to 5. The purpose of these levels is to provide a “measuring stick” for organizations looking to improve their system development processes.
Level 0: Not Performed
Level 0 is common for companies that are just entering the IT field. At this level there are few or no best practices. Some IT activities are not even performed and all deliverables are done in “one-off efforts.” Typically new applications are built by a small number of people (possibly even one person) in a very isolated fashion.
Level 1: Performed Informally
It consists on planning and tracking of IT activities is missing and deliverables are accomplished via punctual effort. That means that a team might work long hours in order to build a particular application. As a result, IT deliverables are adequate but the deliverables are not repeatable or transferable.
Level 2: Planned and Tracked
Level 2 has IT deliverables that are planned and tracked. In addition, there are some defined best practices within the enterprise. Some repeatable processes exist within an IT project team/group, but the success of this team/group is not transferable across the enterprise
Level 3: Well-Defined
IT best practices are documented and performed throughout the enterprise. At level 3 IT deliverables are repeatable AND transferable across the company. This level is a very difficult jump for most companies. Not surprisingly, this is also the level that provides the greatest cost savings.
Level 4: Qualitatively Controlled
Companies at level 4 have established measurable process goals for each defined process. These measurements are collected and analyzed quantitatively. At this level, companies can begin to predict future IT implementation performance.
Level 5: Continuously Improving
At level 5 enterprises have quantitative and qualitative understanding of each IT process. It is at this level that a company understands how each IT process is related to the overall business strategies and goals of the corporation.
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