Process Areas

September 3rd, 2008 chris

A process area is a cluster of related practices in an area that, when implemented collectively, satisfies a set of goals considered important for making significant improvement in that area.

There are twenty-five process areas, presented in alphabetical order by acronym:

• Causal Analysis and Resolution (CAR)

• Configuration Management (CM)

• Decision Analysis and Resolution (DAR)

• Integrated Project Management (IPM)

• Integrated Supplier Management (ISM)

• Integrated Teaming (IT)

• Measurement and Analysis (MA)

• Organizational Environment for Integration (OEI)

• Organizational Innovation and Deployment (OID)

• Organizational Process Definition (OPD)

• Organizational Process Focus (OPF)

• Organizational Process Performance (OPP)

• Organizational Training (OT)

• Product Integration (PI)

• Project Monitoring and Control (PMC)

• Project Planning (PP)

• Process and Product Quality Assurance (PPQA)

• Quantitative Project Management (QPM)

• Requirements Development (RD)

• Requirements Management (REQM)

• Risk Management (RSKM)

• Supplier Agreement Management (SAM)

• Technical Solution (TS)

• Validation (VAL)

• Verification (VER)

Posted in CMMI

Three Categories of Process Area Components

September 3rd, 2008 chris

Process area components are grouped into the following three categories that reflect how to interpret them:

Required Components

Required components describe what an organization must achieve to satisfy a process area. This achievement must be visibly implemented in an organization’s processes. The required components in CMMI are the specific and generic goals. Goal satisfaction is used in appraisals as the basis for deciding if a process area has been achieved and satisfied.

Expected Components

Expected components describe what an organization will typically implement to achieve a required component. Expected components guide those who implement improvements or perform appraisals. Expected components include the specific and generic practices.

Before goals can be considered satisfied, either the practices as described or acceptable alternatives to them are present in the planned and implemented processes of the organization.

Informative Components

Informative components provide details that help organizations get started in thinking about how to approach the required and expected components. Subpractices, typical work products, discipline amplifications, generic practice elaborations, goal and practice titles, goal and practice notes, and references are all informative model components.

Posted in CMMI

Evolution of CMMI

September 3rd, 2008 chris

Since 1991, CMMs have been developed for a myriad of disciplines. Some of the most notable include models for systems engineering, software engineering, software acquisition, workforce management and development, and integrated product and process development.

Although these models have proved useful to many organizations, the use of multiple models has been problematic. Many organizations would like to focus their improvement efforts across the disciplines in their organizations. However, the differences among these discipline-specific models, including their architecture, content, and approach, have limited these organizations’ ability to focus their improvements successfully. Further, applying multiple models that are not integrated within and across an organization is costly in terms of training, appraisals, and improvement activities.

The CMM Integration project was formed to sort out the problem of using multiple CMMs. The CMMI Product Team’s mission was to combine three source models:

1. The Capability Maturity Model for Software (SW-CMM) v2.0 draft C

2. The Systems Engineering Capability Model (SECM)

3. The Integrated Product Development Capability Maturity Model (IPD-CMM) v 0.98

The combination of these models into a single improvement framework was intended for use by organizations in their pursuit of enterprise-wide process improvement.

These three source models were selected because of their widespread adoption in the software and systems engineering communities and because of their different approaches to improving processes in an organization.

Using information from these popular and well-regarded models as source material, the CMMI Product Team created a cohesive set of integrated models that can be adopted by those currently using the source models, as well as by those new to the CMM concept. Hence, CMMI is a result of the evolution of the SW-CMM, the SECM, and the IPD-CMM.

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The Glue on the Organization’s Dimension

September 3rd, 2008 chris

The three critical dimensions that organizations typically focus on to improve its business are the following:

• people
• procedures and methods
• tools and equipment.

But what holds everything together? It is the processes used in your organization. Processes allow you to align the way you do business. They allow you to address scalability and provide a way to incorporate knowledge of how to do things better. Processes allow you to leverage your resources and to examine business trends.

This is not to say that people and technology are not important. We are living in a world where technology is changing by an order of magnitude every ten years. Similarly, people typically work for many companies throughout their careers. We live in a dynamic world. A focus on process provides the infrastructure necessary to deal with an ever-changing world and to maximize personnel and technology to be more competitive.

Manufacturing has long recognized the importance of process effectiveness and efficiency. Today, many organizations in manufacturing and service industries recognize the importance of quality processes. Process helps an organization’s workforce meet business objectives by helping them work smarter, not harder, and with improved consistency. Effective processes also provide a vehicle for introducing and using new technology in a way that best meets the business objectives of the organization.

Posted in CMMI