Capability Maturity Model

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CapabilityMaturityModel

• Part One - Overview

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History

• 1986 - Effort started by SEI and MITRE
  Corporation
• assess capability of DoD contractors
• First version published in 1991
• closely related to TQM
• goal is customer satisfaction
• not required that customer be "delighted"

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Some Fundamental Ideas

• Process improvement is based on small steps,
  rather than revolutionary innovation.
• CMM is not exhaustive or dictatorial.
• CMM focuses on processes that are of value across
  the organization.

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Benefits of using the model

• helps forge a shared vision of purpose of process
  improvement within the organization
• establishes common language for the software
  process
• defines a set of priorities for attacking
  problems
• supports measurement
• via reliable appraisals
• objective
• supports industry-wide comparisons

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Risks of using the model

• "All models are wrong some models are useful."
• Not a silver bullet.
• Does not address all of the issues that are
  important for successful projects.
• For example
• how to hire and retain good people
• expertise in the application domain

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Levels

1. Initial
2. Repeatable
3. Defined
4. Managed
5. Optimizing

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Level 1 The Initial Level

• ad hoc, sometimes chaotic
• overcommitment leads to a series of crises
• during a crisis, projects abandon plans
• capability is characteristic of individuals, not
  the organization
• when a good manager leaves, the success leaves
  with them

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Level 2 The Repeatable Level

• Planning is based on experience with similar
  projects
• past successes can be repeated
• Policies for Managing and Implementation
• installed basic management controls
• track costs and schedules
• notice and deal with problems as they arise

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Level 3 The Defined Level

• Standard Processes defined across the
  organization and used by all projects
• standard set of roles, activities, quality
  tracking, etc
• each project uses a tailored version of this
  standard process
• Training Program is in place to ensure everyone
  has the skills required for their assigned role

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Level 4 The Managed Level

• Quantitative Quality Goals
• for both Products and Processes
• Organization-wide Process Database
• meaningful variations in process performance can
  be distinguished from random noise
• actions are then taken to correct the situation
• Products are of predictably high quality

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Level 5 The Optimizing Level

• Organization has the means to identify weaknesses
  and strengthen the process proactively
• teams analyze defects to determine their cause,
  and disseminate lessons learned throughout the
  organization
• major focus on eliminating waste
• e.g. reduce amount of rework

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Defect prevention Technology change
management Process change management
Key Process Areas by maturity level
Quantitative process management Software Quality
Management
Organization process focus Organization process
definition Training program Integrated software
management Software product engineering Intergroup
coordination Peer Reviews
Requirements management Software project
planning Software project tracking and
oversight Software subcontract management Software
quality assurance Software Configuration
management
This is a somewhat handy hierarchy of
activities.
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Don't skip levels

• For example,
• collecting detailed data (level 4) is meaningless
  unless the data is from projects that use a
  consistent process (level 3)

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Reality Check...

• Is CMM well-suited for everyone?

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Criticisms of CMM

• CMM is well suited for bureaucratic organizations
  such as government agencies and large
  corporations.
• Its formality is a hindrance to projects where
  time-to-market is more important than quality.
• Promotes process over substance.
• For example, emphasizing predictability over
  service provided to end users.

en.wikipedia.com
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Who uses CMM

• 75 of organizations are probably Level One.
• To get to Level Two, you must have control over
  the requirements documents. Hence, shrink-wrap
  companies like Microsoft are Level One.
• 75 of Level Five organizations are in India.

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Level Comparison - Risk

• Level 1
• Just do it
• Level 2
• problems are recognized and corrected as they
  occur
• Level 3
• problems are anticipated and prevented, or
  impacts minimized
• Levels 4 and 5
• sources of problems are understood and eliminated

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Level Comparison - People

• Level 1
• success depends on individual heroics
• fire fighting is the way of life
• Level 2
• people are trained and supported by management
• success depends on individuals
• Level 3
• people are trained for their role(s)
• groups work together
• Levels 4
• strong sense of teamwork in every project
• Level 5
• strong sense of teamwork across the organization
• everyone does process improvement

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Level Comparison - Measurement

• Level 1
• ad hoc data collection and analysis
• Level 2
• individual projects use planning data
• Level 3
• data collected for all processes
• data shared across projects
• Levels 4
• data standardized across the organization
• Level 5
• data used for process improvement

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Quiz 1

• Your Role SQA specialist
• Situation
• Initial Unit Testing reports indicate a bug rate
  of 4.5 / KSLOC.
• Further checking finds
• Average initial bug rate is 3.1 per KSLOC
• StdDev of 0.5
• weighted rate is also higher than average
• What CMM level enables this amount of visibility
  into the process?

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Quiz 2

• Your Role Project Manager
• Phase Unit Testing
• Problem You notice that design, implementation,
  and testing of the database component will
  probably take 3 weeks instead of the planned 4
  weeks. These tasks are not on the critical path.
  
• Possible Actions?
• and what level CMM characterizes that action?

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Quiz 3

• Your Role Project Manager
• Phase Planning
• Task Schedule the Testing of the Database
• Estimated Duration 3 days
• Required Resources
• the database requirements specs
• the implementation (source code)
• real data from customer
• test person that has a DB Test certificate
• How do the different capability levels affect
  your ability to schedule and monitor this task?

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Quiz 4

• Your Role a development team leader
• Problems
• Well into development, you get an email
  indicating a change in the interface requirements
  based on a demo of the prototype done with the
  customer. The change will require a good amount
  of code rework.
• What would be the reaction of groups with
• Level One
• Level Three
• Level Five

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Next . . .

• Key Process Areas
• Key Practices
• Common Features