Capability Maturity Model

What is CMM?

● CMM: Capability Maturity Model

● Developed by the Software Engineering
Institute of the Carnegie Mellon
University
● Framework that describes the key
elements of an effective software
process.
What is CMM?
● Describes an evolutionary improvement
path for software organizations from an
ad hoc, immature process to a mature,
disciplined one.
● Provides guidance on how to gain
control of processes for developing and
maintaining software and how to evolve
toward a culture of software engineering
and management excellence.
Process Maturity Concepts
● Software Process
● set of activities, methods, practices, and
transformations that people use to develop and
maintain software and the associated products
(e.g., project plans, design documents, code, test
cases, user manuals)
● Software Process Capability
● describes the range of expected results that can
be achieved by following a software process
● means of predicting the most likely outcomes to be
expected from the next software project the
organization undertakes
Process Maturity Concepts
● Software Process Performance
● actual results achieved by following a software
process
● Software Process Maturity
● extent to which a specific process is explicitly
defined, managed, measured, controlled and
effective
● implies potential growth in capability
● indicates richness of process and consistency with
which it is applied in projects throughout the
organization
What are the CMM Levels?
(The five levels of software process maturity)

Maturity level indicates level of process

capability:
● Initial

● Repeatable

● Defined
● Managed
● Optimizing
 Level 1: Initial
● Initial : The software process is characterized
as ad hoc, and occasionally even chaotic. Few
processes are defined, and success depends
on individual effort.
● At this level, frequently have difficulty making
commitments that the staff can meet with an orderly
process
● Products developed are often over budget and
schedule
● Wide variations in cost, schedule, functionality and
quality targets
● Capability is a characteristic of the individuals, not
of the organization
Level 2: Repeatable
● Basic process management processes are
established to track cost, schedule, and
functionality. The necessary process
discipline is in place to repeat earlier
successes on projects with similar
applications.
● Realistic project commitments based on results
observed on previous projects
● Software project standards are defined and
faithfully followed
● Processes may differ between projects
● Process is disciplined
● earlier successes can be repeated
Level 3: Defined

● The software process for both

management and engineering activities
is documented, standardized, and
integrated into a standard software
process for the organization. All projects
use an approved, tailored version of the
organization’s standard software
process for developing an maintaining
software.
Level 4: Managed

● Detailed measures of the software process

and product quality are collected. Both the
software process and products are
quantitatively understood and controlled.
● Narrowing the variation in process performance to
fall within acceptable quantitative bounds
● When known limits are exceeded, corrective
action can be taken
● Quantifiable and predictable
● predict trends in process and product quality
Level 5: Optimizing
● Continuous process improvement is enabled
by quantitative feedback from the process
and from piloting innovative ideas and
technologies.
● Goal is to prevent the occurrence of defects
● Causal analysis
● Data on process effectiveness used for cost
benefit analysis of new technologies and
proposed process changes
Internal Structure to Maturity
Levels
● Except for level 1, each level is decomposed
into key process areas (KPA)
● Each KPA identifies a cluster of related
activities that, when performed collectively,
achieve a set of goals considered important
for enhancing software capability.
● commitment
● ability
● activity
● measurement
● verification
Level 2 KPAs
● Requirements Management
● Establish common understanding of customer
requirements between the customer and the
software project
● Requirements is basis for planning and managing
the software project
● Not working backwards from a given release date!
● Software Project Planning
● Establish reasonable plans for performing the
software engineering activities and for managing
the software project
Level 2 KPAs
● Software Project Tracking and Oversight
● Establish adequate visibility into actual progress
● Take effective actions when project’s performance
deviates significantly from planned
● Software Subcontract Management
● Manage projects outsourced to subcontractors
● Software Quality Assurance
● Provide management with appropriate visibility
into
● process being used by the software projects
● work products
Level 2 KPAs

● Software Configuration Management

● Establish and maintain the integrity of work
products
● Product baseline
● Baseline authority
Level 3 KPAs

● Organization Process Focus

● Establish organizational responsibility for software
process activities that improve the organization’s
overall software process capability
● Organization Process Definition
● Develop and maintain a usable set of software
process assets
● stable foundation that can be institutionalized
● basis for defining meaningful data for quantitative
process management
Level 3 KPAs
● Training Program
● Develop skills and knowledge so that individual
can perform their roles effectively and efficiently
● Organizational responsibility
● Needs identified by project
● Integrated Software Management
● Integrated engineering and management activities
● Engineering and management processes are
tailored from the organizational standard
processes
● Tailoring based on business environment and
project needs
Level 3 KPAs
● Software Product Engineering
● technical activities of the project are well defined
(SDLC)
● correct, consistent work products
● Intergroup Coordination
● Software engineering groups participate actively
with other groups
● Peer Reviews
● early defect detection and removal
● better understanding of the products
● implemented with inspections, walkthroughs, etc
Level 4 KPAs

● Quantitative Process Management

● control process performance quantitatively
● actual results from following a software process
● focus on identifying and correcting special causes
of variation with respect to a baseline process
● Software Quality Management
● quantitative understanding of software quality
● products
● process
Level 5 KPAs
● Process Change Management
● continuous process improvement to improve
quality, increase productivity, decrease cycle time
● Technology Change Management
● identify and transfer beneficial new technologies
● tools
● methods
● processes
● Defect Prevention
● causal analysis of defects to prevent recurrence
What are the benefits ?
● Helps forge a shared vision of what software
process improvement means for the
organization
● Defines set of priorities for addressing
software problems
● Supports measurement of process by
providing framework for performing reliable
and consistent appraisals
● Provides framework for consistency of
processes and product
Why measure software and
software process?
Obtain data that helps us to better control
● schedule

● cost
● quality of software products
Consistent measurement provide
data for:
● Quantitatively expressing requirements,
goals, and acceptance criteria
● Monitoring progress and anticipating
problems
● Quantifying tradeoffs used in allocating
resources
● Predicting schedule, cost and quality
Measurements

● Historical
● Plan
● Actual
● Projections
SEI Core Measures
Examples of measurements for
size of work products
● Estimated number of requirements
● Actual number of requirements
● Estimated source lines of code (SLOC)
● Actual SLOC
● Estimated number of test cases
● Actual number of test cases
Example of measurements of
effort
● Estimated man-hours to design/code a
given module
● Actual man-hours expended for
designing/coding the module
● Estimated number of hours to run builds
for a given release
● Actual number of hours spent running
builds for the release
Examples of measurements of
quality of the work product
● Number of issues raised at
requirements inspection
● Number of requirements issues open
● Number of requirements issues closed
● Number of issues raised during code
inspection
● Number of defects opened during unit
testing
Examples of measurements of
quality of the work product
● Number of defects opened during
system testing
● Number of defects opened during UAT
● Number of defects still open
● Number of defects closed
● Defect age
Examples of measurements of
quality of the work product
● Total number of build failures
● Total number of defects fixed for a given
release
● Total number of defects verified and
accepted
● Total number of defects verified and
rejected