Software CMM® Consulting

Watts Humphrey and his colleagues at IBM developed the original concept for a process maturity framework in the early 1980s. The first complete formulation of the process maturity framework underlying the CMM was presented in 'Managing the Software Process' by Humphrey in 1989. Through software process assessments, workshops, and extensive reviews, the SEI evolved Humphrey's process maturity framework into the Capability Maturity Model ® for Software (SW-CMM ® ) [Paulk 95]. Version 1 of the Capability Maturity Model for Software was released after extensive national review in August 1991, and Version 1.1 [Paulk 93a, 93b] was released in January 1993.

In brief, the maturity framework builds an environment in which:

• practices can be repeated,
• best practices can be rapidly transferred across groups
• variations in performing best practices are reduced, and
• practices are continuously improved to enhance their capability.
  

Today, The Software Capability Maturity Model® from the Software Engineering Institute (SEISM) is one of the world's most popular frameworks for software organizations in building organizational maturity.

We are working with several organizations to help them leverage the CMM® model to get lasting process improvements leading to business advantage, providing them end-to-end services in implementing the CMM® model. The services include

Consultancy

The consulting and facilitation support is typically given for action planning, milestone setting, Key Process Area (KPA) development, piloting and institutionalization, documentation reviews, analysis and review of metrics, determining organizations' readiness for the assessment,pre-assessment planning, CBA-IPI guidance etc.

Details of some of the popular CMM® services are as follows:

Documentation Review

QAI reviews the process documentation of client organizations to assess adequacy, effectiveness and conformance to the CMM® framework requirements. Comments and recommendations are provided to make the documentation effective, usable and CMM®-compliant.

Process Development and Deployment Facilitation

QAI works with its clients to define and implement processes to support various KPAs. This typically involves working with various KPA teams for defining and documenting processes, piloting and institutionalization of planning and monitoring.

ISO-to-CMM® transition

QAI helps its clients plan and execute an effective transition strategy by conducting a gap analysis, mapping ISO clauses to CMM® KPA's and action planning. The emphasis is on maximizing the business value available from both approaches, while conforming to the requirements of the model.

CMM®-Based Process Assessments
CMM® Based Abridged Assessment (CBAA)

A number of QAI clients request services to help them determine the state of their CMM®-based process improvement efforts using QAI's CMM® Based Abridged Assessment. This methodology is consistent with the CMM® Assessment Framework and reports on the organization's strengths and weaknesses relative to the desired maturity level. The primary advantage of the CBAA is that it requires significantly lesser resources than a full CBA-IPI, while providing a reliable overview of the health of the software process improvement programme.

Pre-assessment

This is an informal Assessment by QAI's SEI Lead Assessor, based on the same guidelines as the Registered CBA IPI. This acts like a mock assessment. It gives the organization a flavour of how the actual assessment is conducted.

Formal Assessment (CBA-IPI)

QAI offers the formal CBA-IPI Assessment to its clients.

Training

Official "Introduction to CMM®" course

QAI offers (publicly and in-house) the official "Introduction to CMM®" course in India. This three-day course is designed by the Software Engineering Institute (SEISM) and taught by our faculty, which has been observed and authorized by the SEISM to teach this course worldwide.

CMM® Overview Courses

QAI offers one day and two-day CMM® Overview courses. These courses impart the fundamentals of the CMM® framework to the participants.

KPA-specific Training

QAI offers one and two day courses to cover specific Key Process Areas. These courses provide an in-depth understanding of the concepts and process requirements from the CMM® perspective - leading to effective processes