Abstract
The SEI was founded by the US Congress in 1984 and has worked successfully in advancing software engineering practices in the USA and worldwide. It performs research to find solutions to key software engineering problems, and its proposed solutions are validated through pilots. These solutions are then disseminated to the wider software engineering community through its training programme. The SEI’s research and maturity models have played an important role in helping companies to deliver high-quality software consistently on-time and on-budget.
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Notes
- 1.
The SEI was founded by the US Congress in 1984 and has worked successfully in advancing software engineering practices in the USA and worldwide. It performs research to find solutions to key software engineering problems, and its proposed solutions are validated through pilots. These solutions are then disseminated to the wider software engineering community through its training programme. The SEI’s research and maturity models have played an important role in helping companies to deliver high-quality software consistently on-time and on-budget. The SEI opened a European office in Frankfurt, Germany, in 2004.
- 2.
Of course, the fact that a company has been appraised at a certain CMM or CMMI rating is no guarantee that it is performing effectively as a commercial organization. For example, the Motorola plant in India was appraised at CMM level 5 in the late 1990s while Motorola lost business opportunities in the GSM market.
- 3.
ISO 15504 (popularly known as SPICE) is an international standard for software process assessment.
- 4.
This book is focused on the implementation of the staged representation of the CMMI rather than the continuous representation. This is my preferred approach to process improvement as it provides a clearly defined roadmap and also allows benchmarking of organizations. Appraisals against the staged representation are useful since a CMMI maturity level rating is awarded to the organization, and the company may use this to publicize its software engineering capability.
- 5.
Discipline amplification is a specialized piece of information that is relevant to a particular discipline. It is introduced in the model by text such as “For Systems Engineering”.
- 6.
A SCAMPI appraisal is a systematic examination of the processes in an organization to determine the maturity of the organization with respect to the CMMI. An appraisal team consists of a SCAMPI lead appraiser, one or more external appraisers, and usually one internal appraiser. It consists of interviews with senior and middle management and reviews with project managers and project teams. The appraisers will review documentation and determine the extent to which the processes defined are effective as well as the extent to which they are institutionalized in the organization. Data will be gathered and reviewed by the appraisers, ratings produced, and the findings presented to the organization.
- 7.
Small organizations may not have the budget for a formal SCAMPI Class A appraisal. They may be more interested in an independent SCAMPI Class B or C appraisal, which is used to provide feedback on their strengths and opportunities for improvement. Feedback allows the organization to focus its improvement efforts for the next improvement cycle.
- 8.
Institutionalization is a technical term and means that the process is ingrained in the way in which work is performed in the organization. An institutionalized process is defined, documented, and followed in the organization. All staff have been appropriately trained in its use and process discipline is enforced via audits. It is explained by the phrase “That’s the way we do things around here”.
References
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Software Engineering Institute: CMMI Impact. Presentation by Anita Carleton. Aug 2009
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O’Regan, G. (2011). Capability Maturity Model Integration . In: Introduction to Software Process Improvement. Undergraduate Topics in Computer Science. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-85729-172-1_3
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