Capability Maturity Model

The Capability Maturity Model (CMM) [1] is a development model created after study of data collected from organizations that contracted with the U.S. Department of Defense, who funded the research. This model became the foundation from which Carnegie Mellon created the Software Engineering Institute (SEI). The term "maturity" relates to the degree of formality and optimization of processes, from ad hoc practices, to formally defined steps, to managed result metrics, to active optimization of the processes.

Overview
1 Overview 2 History 2.1 Prior need for software processes 2.2 Precursor 2.3 Development at Software Engineering Institute 2.4 CMMI 2.5 Adapted to other processes 3 Model topics 3.1 Maturity model 3.2 Structure 3.3 Levels 3.4 Critique 3.5 Software process framework 4 See also 5 References 6 External links

The Capability Maturity Model (CMM) [1] is a development model created after study of data collected from organizations that contracted with the U.S. Department of Defense, who funded the research. This model became the foundation from which Carnegie Mellon created the Software Engineering Institute (SEI). The term "maturity" relates to the degree of formality and optimization of processes, from ad hoc practices, to formally defined steps, to managed result metrics, to active optimization of the processes. The model's aim is to improve existing software-development processes, but it can also be applied to other processes. The Capability Maturity Model was originally developed as a tool for objectively assessing the ability of government contractors' processes to perform a contracted software project. The model is based on the process maturity framework first described in the 1989 book Managing the Software Process by Watts Humphrey. It was later published in a report in 1993 [2] and as a book by the same authors in 1995. Though the model comes from the field of software development, it is also used as a general model to aid in business processes generally, and has been used extensively worldwide in government offices, commerce, industry and software-development organizations.