Capability Maturity Model (CMM) Assignment Instructions
Overview
The Capability Maturity Model (CMM) was developed because of a study financed by the U.S Air Force to evaluate the work of subcontractors. Later based on the CMM-SW model created in 1991 to assess the maturity of software development, multiple other models are integrated with CMM as well. The Model is used as a benchmark to measure the maturity of an organization’s software process. At Level 1, the process is usually chaotic and ad hoc in its activities. At Level 2, the leadership implements requirements management, project estimation, cost, schedules, and functionality. At Level 3, the leadership begin to clarify customer requirements, solve design requirements, and develop an implementation process. At Level 4, the leadership begin to manage the project’s processes and sub-processes statistically. At Level 5, the process comes together by detecting and removing causes of defects and errors.
Each level in CMM is defined into key process area (KPA), except for Level 1. Each KPA defines a cluster of related activities, which when performed collectively achieves a set of goals considered vital for improving software capability. For different CMM levels, there are set of KPA’s. Use the Message Scenario to find the KPA’s for this assignment.
Instructions
For this assignment, you will follow the steps listed below, each item listed is downloadable resource in the Homework: Capability Maturity Model (CMM) Resources.
- Review the CMM Levels Summary.
- Review the KPA Details Handout.
- Read the Messenger Scenario.
- Use the Homework: Capability Maturity Model (CMM) Template.
- Identify the KPA’s found in the Messenger Scenario.
- From the KPA Details Handout cut the title of the identified KPA’s & paste them in the correct levels on the Homework: Capability Maturity Model (CMM) Template.
- The assignment page length should fit within the Homework: Capability Maturity Model (CMM) Template in the assignment area.
- Ensure that you use APA formatting for each portion of the assignment.
- Include a minimum of 4 peer-reviewed references
- Acceptable sources are (e.g., scholarly articles published within the last five years)
Retrieved from: http://www.smartmatix.com/Resources/CMMexplained/KeyProcessAreasKPAs.aspx
| CMM Level | KPA Title | KPA Description |
| 2 | Level 2 – Managed | At maturity level 2, the projects of the organization have ensured that requirements are managed and that processes are planned, performed, measured, and controlled. The process discipline reflected by maturity level 2 helps to ensure that existing practices are retained during times of stress. When these practices are in place, projects are performed and managed according to their documented plans. |
| 2 | Requirements Management | The purpose of Requirements Management is to manage the requirements of the project’s products and product components and to identify inconsistencies between those requirements and the project’s plans and work products. |
| 2 | Project Planning | The purpose of Project Planning is to establish and maintain plans that define project activities. |
| 2 | Project Monitoring and Control | The purpose of Project Monitoring and Control is to provide an understanding of the project’s progress so that appropriate corrective actions can be taken when the project’s performance deviates significantly from the plan. |
| 2 | Supplier Agreement Management | The purpose of Supplier Agreement Management is to manage the acquisition of products from suppliers for which there exists a formal agreement. |
| 2 | Measurement and Analysis | The purpose of Measurement and Analysis is to develop and sustain a measurement capability that is used to support management information needs. |
| 2 | Process and Product Quality Assurance | The purpose of Process and Product Quality Assurance is to provide staff and management with objective insight into processes and associated work products. |
| 2 | Configuration Management | The purpose of Configuration Management is to establish and maintain the integrity of work products using configuration identification, configuration control, configuration status accounting, and configuration audits. |
| 3 | Level 3 – Defined | At maturity level 3, processes are well characterized and understood, and are described in standards, procedures, tools, and methods. The organization’s set of standard processes, is established and improved over time. These standard processes are used to establish consistency across the organization. Projects establish their defined processes by tailoring the organization’s set of standard processes according to tailoring guidelines. |
| CMM Level | KPA Title | KPA Description |
| 3 | Requirements Development | The purpose of Requirements Development is to produce and analyze customer, product, and product-component requirements. |
| 3 | Technical Solution | The purpose of Technical Solution is to design, develop, and implement solutions to requirements. Solutions, designs, and implementations encompass products, product components, and product-related life- cycle processes either singly or in combinations as appropriate. |
| 3 | Product Integration | The purpose of Product Integration is to assemble the product from the product components, ensure that the product, as integrated, functions properly, and deliver the product. |
| 3 | Verification | The purpose of Verification is to ensure that selected work products meet their specified requirements. |
| 3 | Validation | The purpose of Validation is to demonstrate that a product or product component fulfils its intended use when placed in its intended environment. |
| 3 | Organizational Process Focus | The purpose of Organizational Process Focus is to plan and implement organizational process improvement based on a thorough understanding of the current strengths and weaknesses of the organization’s processes and process assets. |
| 3 | Organizational Process Definition | The purpose of Organizational Process Definition is to establish and maintain a usable set of organizational process assets. |
| 3 | Organizational Training | The purpose of Organizational Training is to develop the skills and knowledge of people so they can perform their roles effectively and efficiently. |
| 3 | Risk Management | The purpose of Risk Management is to identify potential problems before they occur, so that risk-handling activities may be planned and invoked as needed across the life of the product or project to mitigate adverse impacts on achieving objectives. |
| 3 | Decision Analysis and Resolution | The purpose of Decision Analysis and Resolution is to analyze possible decisions using a formal evaluation process that evaluates identified alternatives against established criteria. The Decision Analysis and Resolution process area supports all the process areas by providing a formal evaluation process that ensures that alternatives are compared and the best one is selected to accomplish the goals of the process areas. |
| 3 | Integrated Product and Process Development (IPPD) environment | Covers interactions of the Integrated Project Management (IPM), the Integrated Teaming (IT) and Organizational Environment for Integration (OEI). If you are not using a model that includes IPPD you may ignore this material. |
| CMM Level | KPA Title | KPA Description |
| 3 | Integrated Project Management | The purpose of Integrated Project Management is to establish and manage the project and the involvement of the relevant stakeholders according to an integrated and defined process that is tailored from the organization’s set of standard processes. |
| 3 | Integrated Teaming | The purpose of Integrated Product Teaming is to form and sustain an integrated team for the development of work products. Notes: The following characteristics distinguish an integrated team: Team members include empowered representatives from both technical and business functional organizations that have decision-making authority and the responsibility to act for their respective organizations. |
| 3 | Integrated Supplier Management | The purpose of Integrated Supplier Management is to proactively identify sources of products that may be used to satisfy the project’s requirements and to manage selected suppliers while maintaining a cooperative project-supplier relationship. Notes: Designed for situations in which projects use suppliers to perform functions that are critical to the success of the project. |
| 3 | Organizational Environment for Integration | The purpose of Organizational Environment for Integration is to provide an Integrated Product and Process Development (IPPD) infrastructure and manage people for integration. Notes: An infrastructure that maximizes the productivity and collaboration of people; the process is institutionalised. |
| 4 | Level 4 – Quantitatively Managed | At maturity level 4, Quantitative objectives for quality and process performance are established and used as criteria in managing processes. Quantitative objectives are based on the needs of the customer, end users, organization, and process implementers. Quality and process performance are understood in statistical terms and are managed throughout the life of the processes. |
| 4 | Organizational Process Performance | The purpose of Organizational Process Performance is to establish and maintain a quantitative understanding of the performance of the organization’s set of standard processes in support of quality and process-performance objectives, and to provide the process performance data, baselines, and models to quantitatively manage the organization’s projects. |
| 4 | Quantitative Project Management | The purpose of the Quantitative Project Management process area is to quantitatively manage the project’s defined process to achieve the project’s established quality and process-performance objectives. |
| 5 | Level 5 – Optimizing | Maturity level 5 focuses on continually improving process performance. Processes are continually improved based on a quantitative understanding of the common causes of variation inherent in processes. The effects of deployed process improvements are measured and evaluated against the quantitative process-improvement objectives. |
| CMM Level | KPA Title | KPA Description |
| 5 | Organizational Innovation and Deployment | The purpose of Organizational Innovation and Deployment is to select and deploy incremental and innovative improvements that measurably improve the organization’s processes and technologies. The improvements support the organization’s quality and process- performance objectives as derived from the organization’s business objectives. |
| 5 | Causal Analysis and Resolution | The purpose of Causal Analysis and Resolution is to identify causes of defects and other problems and take action to prevent them from occurring in the future. |
