CMMI

CMMI: Capability Maturity Model Integration

CMMI is a model to improve and assess development and maintenance processes for the software systems and products of a company. It was developed by the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) at Carnegie Mellon University.

It represents a path of improvement and allows one to determine the maturity and evaluate the capacities of software development organizations. It is a structured collection of elements that describes the features of processes that have proven, by experience, to be successful. It is recommended for organizations that want to increase the capacity of their development process and develop software with quality.

The CMMI model has five maturity levels. Each level is a well-defined process improvement step and stabilizes an important part of organizational processes.

MANAGED LEVEL – LEVEL 2:

A CMMI Level 2 organization makes sure its processes are planned, documented, carried-out, monitored, and controlled at project level. Requirements, standards and goals for processes, its work products and its services are defined and documented. The product status is visible for management in pre-established control points. Goals are successfully fulfilled and, what's more, time, quality and cost goals for processes are satisfied.

DEFINED LEVEL – LEVEL 3:

A CMMI Level 3 organization makes sure its processes are defined. A defined process is a managed process adjusted from the organization’s process standard set in accordance with adjustment guides. It has a sustained process description and provides work products, measurements and other process improvement information for the organization’s process assets.

While Level 2 focuses on projects, Level 3 focuses on the definition of standards at an organizational level.

QUANTITATIVELY MANAGED LEVEL – LEVEL 4:

A CMMI Level 4 organization makes sure its processes are controlled, using statistics and other quantitative techniques. Quality and Performance Quantitative Goals are established and used as criteria to manage processes. Special causes of variation are identified and corrected to avoid recurrences. The main difference with level 3 is that, in this level, process performance is statistically predictable.

OPTIMIZED LEVEL – LEVEL 5:

A CMMI Level 5 organization makes sure its processes are continuously improved based on an understanding of common causes of variation. It focuses on continuous performance improvement through the incorporation of innovative improvements in Technology and Process.

The main difference with level 4 is the type of variation it targets (common variations).

CMMI, like any process improvement model, provides benefits to the organizations that use it:

• Greater planning reliability (estimations based on facts).
• Rework reduction.
• Clear agreements about the service and functionality of the product to be delivered.
• Dates compliance.
• Process and product visibility.
• Use of documented standards.
• Trained staff.
• Error reduction.
• Better quality of delivered products.
• Orderly management of agreements and contracts with providers.