Capability Maturity Model (CMM)
What is CMM?
A Capability Maturity Model defines the characteristics of a mature, capable process. It identifies the practices that are basic to implementing effective processes and addresses advanced practices. It also assigns to those practices associated maturity levels ranging from unrepeatable to mature.
Typically a path through the various practices is recommended for achieving higher levels of maturity and improving an organization’s processes. The implementation of CMM helps an organization in achieving improved quality of the products, processes and systems, improvement in productivity, and reduced cycle time for projects. The software community has developed the SW-CMM with leadership from the Safety Equipment Institute (SEI). The SEI Capability Maturity Model for Software (SW-CMM) describes a framework that organizations can use to determine their ability to develop and maintain software; it is a model for organizational improvement.
The SW-CMM is based on the process management work of W. Edwards Deming, Joseph M. Juran, and Phillip B. Crosby, and can be applied by organizations to improve their software process through a software process assessment. The SW-CMM also can be applied by acquisition organizations to select qualified software vendors via contractor evaluations. CMM directs software organizations to gain control of their development and maintenance software processes while simultaneously evolving toward software engineering and management excellence. It was designed to guide software organizations in selecting process improvement strategies with current process maturity in mind, and identify the few issues most critical to software quality and process improvement.
