Capability Maturity Model
Structure of the Levels

Maturity Levels -- We have already seen the 5 maturity levels of SW-CMM. Every other CMM also has the same 5 levels.

Key Process Areas -- Each maturity level has a small set of KPAs, which are the important components of that level.

Goals -- Each KPA has a small set of goals, which are the reasons why that KPA is important.

Common Features -- Each KPA has five common features (always the same), which show that the organization is really committed to these goals and how they are going to accomplish them. The five features are:

• commitment to perform
• ability to perform
• activities performed
• measurement and analysis
• verification

Explain the reasons for each common feature of a KPA. (Just saying that you will do something is not enough.)

Activities -- One of the common features above. A detailed list of how an organization is going to achieve the goals for that KPA.

Observation -- CMM contains a lot of verbiage.

Can seem like just a word game, which it might be to some extent.

If you get beyond the verbiage however, CMM does describe some important methods for running software projects.

Observation -- CMM is very detailed about what you have to do, but is remarkable vague about how you should actually do it. This is often frustrating for people. You have to fill in a lot of implementation details yourself.

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Copyright 2001 by Charles H. Connell Jr.