Capability Maturity Model Integration

Capability Maturity Model Integration is a process level improvement training and appraisal program. Administered by the CMMI Institute, a subsidiary of ISACA, it was developed at Carnegie Mellon University. It is required by many U.S. Government contracts, especially in software development. CMU claims CMMI can be used to guide process improvement across a project, division, or an entire organization.
CMMI defines the following five maturity levels for processes: Initial, Managed, Defined, Quantitatively Managed, and Optimizing. CMMI Version 3.0 was published in 2023; Version 2.0 was published in 2018; Version 1.3 was published in 2010, and is the reference model for the rest of the information in this article. CMMI is registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office by CMU.

Overview

Originally CMMI addresses three areas of interest:

Product and service development – CMMI for Development,
Service establishment, management, – CMMI for Services, and
Product and service acquisition – CMMI for Acquisition.

In version 2.0 these three areas were merged into a single model.
CMMI was developed by a group from industry, government, and the Software Engineering Institute at CMU. CMMI models provide guidance for developing or improving processes that meet the business goals of an organization. A CMMI model may also be used as a framework for appraising the process maturity of the organization. By January 2013, the entire CMMI product suite was transferred from the SEI to the CMMI Institute, a newly created organization at Carnegie Mellon.

History

CMMI was developed by the CMMI project, which aimed to improve the usability of maturity models by integrating many different models into one framework. The project consisted of members of industry, government and the Carnegie Mellon Software Engineering Institute. The main sponsors included the Office of the Secretary of Defense and the National Defense Industrial Association.
CMMI is the successor of the capability maturity model or Software CMM. The CMM was developed from 1987 until 1997. In 2002, version 1.1 was released, version 1.2 followed in August 2006, and version 1.3 in November 2010. Some major changes in CMMI V1.3 are the support of agile software development, improvements to high maturity practices and alignment of the representation.
According to the Software Engineering Institute, CMMI helps "integrate traditionally separate organizational functions, set process improvement goals and priorities, provide guidance for quality processes, and provide a point of reference for appraising current processes."
Mary Beth Chrissis, Mike Konrad, and Sandy Shrum Rawdon were the authorship team for the hard copy publication of CMMI for Development Version 1.2 and 1.3. The Addison-Wesley publication of Version 1.3 was dedicated to the memory of Watts Humphry. Eileen C. Forrester, Brandon L. Buteau, and Sandy Shrum were the authorship team for the hard copy publication of CMMI for Services Version 1.3. Rawdon "Rusty" Young was the chief architect for the development of CMMI version 2.0. He was previously the CMMI Product Owner and the SCAMPI Quality Lead for the Software Engineering Institute.
In March 2016, the CMMI Institute was acquired by ISACA.
In April 2023, the CMMI V3.0 was released.

Topics

Representation

In version 1.3 CMMI existed in two representations: continuous and staged. The continuous representation is designed to allow the user to focus on the specific processes that are considered important for the organization's immediate business objectives, or those to which the organization assigns a high degree of risks. The staged representation is designed to provide a standard sequence of improvements, and can serve as a basis for comparing the maturity of different projects and organizations. The staged representation also provides for an easy migration from the SW-CMM to CMMI.
In version 2.0 the above representation separation was cancelled and there is now only one cohesive model.

Model framework (v1.3)

Depending on the areas of interest used, the process areas it contains will vary. Process areas are the areas that will be covered by the organization's processes. The table below lists the seventeen CMMI core process areas that are present for all CMMI areas of interest in version 1.3.

Abbreviation	Process Area	Category	Maturity level
CAR	Causal Analysis and Resolution	Support	5
CM	Configuration Management	Support	2
DAR	Decision Analysis and Resolution	Support	3
IPM	Integrated Project Management	Project Management	3
MA	Measurement and Analysis	Support	2
OPD	Organizational Process Definition	Process Management	3
OPF	Organizational Process Focus	Process Management	3
OPM	Organizational Performance Management	Process Management	5
OPP	Organizational Process Performance	Process Management	4
OT	Organizational Training	Process Management	3
PMC	Project Monitoring and Control	Project Management	2
PP	Project Planning	Project Management	2
PPQA	Process and Product Quality Assurance	Support	2
QPM	Quantitative Project Management	Project Management	4
REQM	Requirements Management	Project Management	2
RSKM	Risk Management	Project Management	3
SAM	Supplier Agreement Management	Support	2

Maturity levels for services

The process areas below and their maturity levels are listed for the CMMI for services model:
Maturity Level 2 – Managed

CM – Configuration Management
MA – Measurement and Analysis
PPQA – Process and Quality Assurance
REQM – Requirements Management
SAM – Supplier Agreement Management
SD – Service Delivery
WMC – Work Monitoring and Control
WP – Work Planning

Maturity Level 3 – Defined

CAM – Capacity and Availability Management
DAR – Decision Analysis and Resolution
IRP – Incident Resolution and Prevention
IWM – Integrated Work Managements
OPD – Organizational Process Definition
OPF – Organizational Process Focus...
OT – Organizational Training
RSKM – Risk Management
SCON – Service Continuity
SSD – Service System Development
SST – Service System Transition
STSM – Strategic Service Management

Maturity Level 4 – Quantitatively Managed

OPP – Organizational Process Performance
QWM – Quantitative Work Management

Maturity Level 5 – Optimizing

CAR – Causal Analysis and Resolution.
OPM – Organizational Performance Management.
Models (v1.3)

CMMI best practices are published in documents called models, each of which addresses a different area of interest. Version 1.3 provides models for three areas of interest: development, acquisition, and services.

CMMI for Development, v1.3 was released in November 2010. It addresses product and service development processes.
CMMI for Acquisition, v1.3 was released in November 2010. It addresses supply chain management, acquisition, and outsourcing processes in government and industry.
CMMI for Services, v1.3 was released in November 2010. It addresses guidance for delivering services within an organization and to external customers.
Model (v2.0)

In version 2.0 DEV, ACQ and SVC were merged into a single model where each process area potentially has a specific reference to one or more of these three aspects. Trying to keep up with the industry the model also has explicit reference to agile aspects in some process areas.
Some key differences between v1.3 and v2.0 models are given below:

"Process Areas" have been replaced with "Practice Areas ". The latter is arranged by levels, not "Specific Goals".
Each PA is composed of a "core" and "context-specific" section.
Since all practices are now compulsory to comply, "Expected" section has been removed.
"Generic Practices" have been put under a new area called "Governance and Implementation Infrastructure", while "Specific practices" have been omitted.
Emphasis on ensuring implementation of PA's and that these are practised continuously until they become a "habit".
All maturity levels focus on the keyword "performance".
Two and five optional PA's from "Safety" and "Security" purview have been included.
PCMM process areas have been merged.
Appraisal

An organization cannot be certified in CMMI; instead, an organization is appraised. Depending on the type of appraisal, the organization can be awarded a maturity level rating or a capability level achievement profile.
Many organizations find value in measuring their progress by conducting an appraisal. Appraisals are typically conducted for one or more of the following reasons:

To determine how well the organization's processes compare to CMMI best practices, and to identify areas where improvement can be made
To inform external customers and suppliers of how well the organization's processes compare to CMMI best practices
To meet the contractual requirements of one or more customers

Appraisals of organizations using a CMMI model must conform to the requirements defined in the Appraisal Requirements for CMMI document. There are three classes of appraisals, A, B and C, which focus on identifying improvement opportunities and comparing the organization's processes to CMMI best practices. Of these, class A appraisal is the most formal and is the only one that can result in a level rating. Appraisal teams use a CMMI model and ARC-conformant appraisal method to guide their evaluation of the organization and their reporting of conclusions. The appraisal results can then be used to plan improvements for the organization.
The Standard CMMI Appraisal Method for Process Improvement is an appraisal method that meets all of the ARC requirements. Results of a SCAMPI appraisal may be published on the CMMI Web site of the SEI: Published SCAMPI Appraisal Results. SCAMPI also supports the conduct of ISO/IEC 15504, also known as SPICE, assessments etc.
This approach promotes that members of the EPG and PATs be trained in the CMMI, that an informal appraisal be performed, and that process areas be prioritized for improvement. More modern approaches, that involve the deployment of commercially available, CMMI-compliant processes, can significantly reduce the time to achieve compliance. SEI has maintained statistics on the "time to move up" for organizations adopting the earlier Software CMM as well as CMMI. These statistics indicate that, since 1987, the median times to move from Level 1 to Level 2 is 23 months, and from Level 2 to Level 3 is an additional 20 months. Since the release of the CMMI, the median times to move from Level 1 to Level 2 is 5 months, with median movement to Level 3 another 21 months. These statistics are updated and published every six months in a maturity profile.
The Software Engineering Institute's team software process methodology and the use of CMMI models can be used to raise the maturity level. A new product called Accelerated Improvement Method combines the use of CMMI and the TSP.