CMMI

CMMI is a set of guidelines that enable organizations to produce good-quality software and improve its performance. CMMI was developed mainly to assess an organization's ability to take on large development projects for the US Department of Defense.

CMMI released version 2 of the model in March 2018. This was an update from version 1.3. CMMI v2.0 is divided into 4 categories and 10 capabilities with 25 practice areas.

Now let's understand the categories and the practice areas:

• Doing: This category deals with designing and developing high-quality products that adhere to customer needs while reducing supply-chain risks. The doing stage includes four capabilities with 10 practice areas, as follows:
  • Ensuring quality (ENQ):
    • Developing and managing requirements: Obtaining requirements, ensuring the mutual understanding of stakeholders, and aligning requirements, plans, and work products.
    • Process quality assurance: Verifying and enabling the improvement of the quality of the processes performed and the resulting products.
    • Verification and validation: Processes for this practice area should do the following:
      • Verify that the selected solutions and components meet their requirements
      • Validate that the selected solutions and components fulfill their intended use in their target environments
    • Peer review: Utilize subject matter experts (SMEs) and peers to review the product to identify and address issues.
  • Engineering and Developing Products (EDP):
    • Product integration: Integrating and delivering a quality solution that meets the required functionality
    • Technical solution: Designing and building solutions that meet customer requirements
  • Delivering and Managing Services (DMS):
    • Service delivery management: Delivering products and services while conforming to service-level agreements (SLAs)
    • Strategic service management: Establishing and maintaining data regarding the organization’s capabilities and strategic needs, which serve as standard services
  • Selecting and Managing Suppliers (SMS):
    • Supplier source selection: Selecting a supplier by evaluating whether the supplier-delivered solution meets the expected requirements
    • Supplier agreement management: Establishing an agreement with the selected suppliers and ensuring that the terms are adhered to by both supplier and acquirer

• Managing: This category deals with improving staff productivity while managing disruptions from the Porter’s Five Forces model to achieve speed-to-market. This category includes three capabilities with seven practice areas, as follows:
  • Planning and Managing Work (PMW):
    • Estimating: Forecasting the factors of the Iron Triangle needed to produce quality product or solution.
    • Planning: Developing plans describing delivery processes based on the standards and constraints of the organization. This includes budget, schedule, and resources, as well as stakeholders and the development team.
    • Monitor and Control: Tracking the project's progress to assert appropriate controls if the project deviates from the plan.
  • Managing Business Resilience (MBR):
    • Risk management and opportunity management: Identifying, recording, and managing potential risks and opportunities
    • Incident resolution and prevention: Analyzing nonconformance to find the root cause and create a plan to prevent the event from recurring
    • Continuity: Establishing contingency plans for sustaining operations during emergencies
  • Managing the Workforce (MWF):
    • Organizational training: Developing the skills and knowledge of personnel so that they perform their roles efficiently and effectively

• Enabling: This category deals with securing stakeholder buy-in and assuring product integrity. It includes one capability with three practice areas, as follows:
  • Supporting Implementation (SI):
    • Causal analysis and resolution: Understanding the root cause of all results and acting to prevent the recurrence of nonconformities and/or acting to ensure conformities
    • Decision analysis and resolution: Making and recording decisions using a recorded process that analyzes alternatives
    • Configuration management: Managing the integrity of deliveries using version control, change control, and appropriate audit mechanisms

• Improving: This category deals with ensuring that performance goals support business needs while establishing sustainable efficiencies. It includes two capabilities and five practice areas, as follows:
  • Improving Performance (IMP):
    • Process management: Managing and implementing the continuous improvement of processes and infrastructure to identify the most beneficial process improvements that support accomplishing business objectives in a sustainable way
    • Process asset development: Recording and maintaining the list of processes used to perform the work
    • Managing performance and measurement: Managing performance using measurement and analysis to achieve business objectives
  • Sustaining Habit and Persistence (SHP):
    • Governance: Counselling top management in the sponsorship and governance of process activities
    • Implementation infrastructure: Ensuring that processes important to the organization are continuously used and improved