CMMI: Guidelines for Process Integration And Product Improvement

CMMI® (Capability Maturity Model® Integration) describes best practices for the development and maintenance of products and services across their entire lifecycle. By integrating essential bodies of knowledge, CMMI provides a single, comprehensive framework for organizations to assess their development and maintenance processes, implement improvements, and measure progress.

This book is a definitive reference for the most current release of CMMI (version 1.2). In the new edition, the authors have added tips, hints, and cross-references in the margins (in color) throughout the process areas to help you better understand, apply, and find more information about the content of the process areas. The book also now includes brief, insightful perspectives on CMMI written by people influential in the model’s creation, development, and transition. A new case study from Raytheon illustrates a real-world application of the model to a services organization. Whether you are new to CMMI or familiar with an earlier version, if you need to know about, evaluate, or put the latest version of CMMI into practice, this book is an essential resource.

The book is divided into three parts.

Part I offers the broad view of CMMI, beginning with basic concepts of process improvement. It describes the process areas, their components, and their relationships to each other. It explains the model’s two representations as well as paths to the adoption and use of CMMI for process improvement and benchmarking.

Part II, the bulk of the book, details the generic goals and practices and the twenty-two process areas now comprising CMMI. The process areas are organized alphabetically by acronym for easy look-up. Each chapter includes goals, best practices, and examples for a particular process area. The two CMMI representations are described so that you will easily see their similarities and differences and thereby be better able to choose the right approach for your organization.

Part III contains several useful resources, including CMMI-related references, acronym definitions, a glossary of terms, and an index.

Mary Beth Chrissis is a senior member of the technical staff at the Software Engineering Institute (SEI). Since joining the SEI in 1988, Mary Beth has been involved in all releases of CMMI models and the Capability Maturity Model for Software (SW-CMM). She is one of the primary contributors to The Capability Maturity Model: Guidelines for Improving the Software Process. Mary Beth is a member of the CMMI Architecture Team and CMMI Model Team. She is the manager of the SEI’s CMMI Training Team, which is responsible for the development and deployment of the SEI’s process improvement courses. Previously, she managed the CMMI Interpretive Guidance Project, which focused on understanding and addressing CMMI adoption issues and perceived barriers to CMMI adoption in the software community with a special focus on information technology, information systems (IS), and commercial software. Mary Beth is a member of the CMMI Configuration Control Board and is an instructor of various SW-CMM and CMMI model-related courses at the SEI. Prior to joining the SEI, Mary Beth worked at GTE Government Systems in Rockville, Maryland, developing a voice processing system. Mary Beth has a B.S. from Carnegie Mellon and is a member of the IEEE Software and Systems Engineering Standards Committee (S2ESC) Executive Committee.

Mike Konrad has been with the Software Engineering Institute since 1988. Currently, Mike is manager of the CMMI Models Team and chairs the CMMI Configuration Control Board, the approving body for changes to CMMI models and the Introduction to CMMI course. From 1988 through 1997, Mike contributed to the development of the Capability Maturity Model for Software (SW-CMM) and the ISO/IEC 15504 standard. Since the inception of the CMMI project in 1998, Mike has been leader or co-leader of every CMMI model development effort. Mike is also a member of the International Process Research Consortium (www.sei.cmu.edu/iprc). Prior to joining the SEI, Mike worked with International Software Systems, Inc. (ISSI) of Austin, Texas, where he contributed to the development of a rapid prototyping system. He has also worked with SAIC, George Mason University, University of Maryland, and Honeywell Information Systems. Mike obtained his Ph.D. in mathematics from Ohio University, Athens, Ohio, in 1978.

Sandy Shrum is a senior writer/editor at the Software Engineering Institute. She has been a member of the CMMI Development Team since the CMMI project’s inception in 1998. Her roles on the project have included Model Team member, Glossary Team leader, reviewer, editor, model development process administrator, and quality assurance coordinator. Sandy is also a member of the SEI Configuration Control Board, and is the CMMI communications coordinator. Before joining the SEI, Sandy spent eight years working for Legent Corporation, a Virginia-based software company. Her experience as a technical writer dates back to 1988, when she earned her M.A. in professional writing from Carnegie Mellon University. Her undergraduate degree, a B.S. in business administration, was earned at Gannon University.