|
The rigor with which an organization conducts planning,
engineering, and managing activities within an IT development
or maintenance project can seriously impact cost, quality,
and completion times.
The Capability Maturity Model
Integration (CMMI®) rating is being adopted
worldwide by government, military, and commercial organizations as the standard
for assessing an organization’s ability to perform. In fact, many government
agencies now recognize the value of a CMMI maturity rating and require that designation
to bid successfully on contracts.
The CMMI framework describes an evolutionary improvement
path from an ad hoc, immature process to a mature, disciplined
process. These processes provide the building blocks
that establish the infrastructure and discipline needed
to move to the higher levels of maturity that lead to
improvement in project performance.
|
|
This article was published in the Fall
2004 issue
of Perspectives.
Please refer to our Terms
of Use policy regarding acceptable use of
content on the ICF International Web site.
|
|
 The five maturity levels in the CMMI model build on the
process areas from preceding levels. The Software Engineering
Institute (SEI), a federally funded research and development
center sponsored by the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD)
and operated by Carnegie Mellon University as the governing
body for CMMI, sets the standard and certifies appraisers.
The SEI originally developed the Capability Maturity Model
(CMM) under DOD sponsorship 15 years ago as a method of evaluating
a software vendor’s capabilities.
Many benefits are derived
from the rigorous ratings process. An organization achieving
a maturity rating can prove its ability to perform at a strong
and consistent level in that area.
Additional strengths of
CMMI include the ability to incorporate business goals within
process improvement, such as increasing schedule and budget
predictability, productivity, quality, customer satisfaction,
employee morale, and Return on Investment (ROI). Furthermore,
sharing knowledge across the company helps to ensure that
the strengths of an organization are applied to each engagement,
rather than being people- or project-centric.
While the original
CMM suite focused on software processes, CMMI covers software
development plus other related fields, such as Systems Engineering,
Product Acquisition, Integrated Teaming, and Requirements
Development. Thus CMMI builds on and extends the principles
of CMM into new areas, while updating best practices in all
areas. The
SEI no longer provides enhancements to CMM and is in the
process of "sunsetting" CMM and encouraging firms to migrate
to the more-robust CMMI suite. As a result, the "market
value" of a CMM rating will decrease over time as
organizations earn the CMMI rating.
Both the CMM and CMMI
models have come under criticism by some observers and practitioners
who have seen organizations implement the model solely to
achieve a maturity rating. Critics have cited examples of
organizations “slipping
back” to their previous methods of doing business
after achieving their rating.
Organizations behaving in
this manner may achieve their goal of securing the maturity
rating that allows them to bid on federal government contracts,
but they sell themselves short by not taking full advantage
of the infrastructure and knowledge that their efforts
have achieved. To truly improve business practices, a change
in the organization’s culture is
required to be able to objectively examine new data and
honestly and open-mindedly decide whether to change processes.
To know whether an organization is truly implementing the
CMMI, ask to see its Process Improvement Plan. Firms committed
to improving their business processes are continuously
planning to achieve higher levels of maturity and capability.
This will be reflected in their plan and in their process
improvement schedule. Also, ask about the improvements
already achieved and how their processes have changed over
time to enable them to reach their business goals. Organizations
implementing CMMI have this information readily available
and are enthusiastic about discussing their accomplishments.
Learn more about ICF International and the CMMI
appraisal.
|
