Settling for Less

Do these statements sound familiar? If they do, your
organization may be settling for less than it is capable of
and may be a good candidate for process improvement.

“I'd rather have it wrong than have it late. We can always
fix it later.”
- a senior software manager (industry)

“The bottom line is schedule. My promotions and raises
are based on meeting schedule first and foremost.”
- a program manager (government)

Symptoms of Process Failure

Commitments consistently missed
• Late delivery
• Last minute crunches
• Spiraling costs

No management visibility into progress
• You’re always being surprised

Quality problems
• Too much rework
• Functions do not work correctly
• Customer complaints after delivery

Poor morale
• People frustrated
• Is anyone in charge?

The quality of a system is highly influenced by the quality of the process used to acquire, develop, and maintain it. This premise implies a focus on processes as well as on products.

Whay is CMM?

Capability Maturity Model (CMM) broadly refers to a process improvement approach that is based on a process model. CMM also refers specifically to the first such model, developed by the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) in the mid-1980s, as well as the family of process models that followed. A process model is a structured collection of practices that describe the characteristics of effective processes; the practices included are those proven by experience to be effective.

CMM can be used to assess an organization against a scale of five process maturity levels. Each level ranks the organization according to its standardization of processes in the subject area being assessed. The subject areas can be as diverse as software engineering, systems engineering, project management, risk management, system acquisition, information technology (IT) services and personnel management.

CMM was developed by the SEI at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. It has been used extensively for avionics software and government projects, in North America, Europe, Asia, Australia, South America, and Africa.

Currently, some government departments require software development contract organization to achieve and operate at a level 3 standard.

More articles coming soon...