ABSTRACT
The Capability Maturity Model (CMM) is a model that helps organizations improve processes.
Originally, it was developed specifically to measure the maturity of software engineering processes.
Over time, the basic framework has been adapted to describe the maturity of other information
technology (IT)-related processes. This article focuses on CMM in a software development environment.
What is the goal of an organization implementing CMM? Organizations that implement CMM want to
know how well-developed their processes are. As the name of the model implies, these organizations want
to know about specific capabilities that are critical to their success. It is not enough to say that XYZ
Company develops software. To be a successful software company, XYZ must gradually become more
efficient at developing high-quality software, but to do so they must first develop processes to govern
software development and then determine how to measure the performance of those processes. Refining
their business means understanding which processes and subprocesses work and which ones require
improvement or even replacement. Organizations using CMM over an extended period of time report
significant improvements in quality of software delivered to their customers as well as reductions in the
cost of delivering that software.
