The Capability Maturity Model for Software is one of the best known products of the Software Engineering Institute. Thousands of copies of the two technical reports that comprise the CMM Paulk93a, Paulk93b have been distributed around the world. The CMM and related process products are having a significant impact on the software community, as evidenced by the current international standards effort on software process described in Appendix G.
This book integrates and elaborates the description of the CMM and how to interpret its practices. It contains the text of the key practices from Paulk93b verbatim, except for a few minor grammatical corrections listed in Appendix H. The authors have added the following material:
- A case study of IBM Houston's Space Shuttle project, which is frequently referred to as being at Level 5 (Chapter 6)
- Mapping between the key practices and the goals of the key process areas (Appendix E)
- A comparison of ISO 9001 and the CMM (Appendix F)
- An overview of ISO's SPICE project, which is developing international standards for software process improvement and capability determination (Appendix G)
The book is divided into two main parts. The first part consists of the chapters describing the evolution of the CMM, the concepts of software process maturity, the structure of the model, how to interpret and use the CMM, and the case study of IBM Houston. The second part consists of the key practices of the CMM, which describes the software management engineering practices of a maturing software process. Also included are a number of appendices that provide useful reference material.
This book is targeted at anyone involved in improving the software process, including members of appraisal teams, members of software engineering process groups, software managers, and software practitioners. It complements Humphrey's Managing the Software Process by formalizing the maturity framework described in that book.
This book does not describe all of the work being done by the SEI's Software Process Program. In particular, the SEI's work on software process definition, measurement, and organizational change may be of value to individuals working to improve the software process. For further information regarding the SEI, the CMM, or its associated products, contact:
SEI Customer Relations
Software Engineering Institute
Carnegie Mellon University
Pittsburgh, PA 15213-3890
Telephone: (412)268-5800
Fax: (412)268-5758
E mail:[email protected]
The CMM is a living document, shaped by the needs of the software community. The SEI solicits feedback from our customers. Instructions for requesting changes to the CMM and a form for doing so are contained in Appendix I.