| Article Index |
|---|
| SEI-CMM |
| Level 1 - Initial |
| Level 2 - Repeatable |
| Level 3 - Defined |
| Level 4 - Managed |
| Level 5 - Optimizing |
| All Pages |
ABOUT SEI-CMM
The Software Engineering Institute (SEI) is a federally funded research and development center sponsored by the U.S. Department of Defense through the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics [OUSD (AT&L)]. The SEI contract was competitively awarded to Carnegie Mellon University in December 1984. The SEI staff has extensive technical and managerial experience from government, industry, and academia.
Mission
The U.S. Department of Defense established the Software Engineering Institute to advance the practice of software engineering because quality software that is produced on schedule and within budget is a critical component of U.S. defense systems.
The SEI mission is to provide leadership in advancing the state of the practice of software engineering to improve the quality of systems that depend on software.
The SEI accomplishes this mission by promoting the evolution of software engineering from an ad hoc, labor-intensive activity to a discipline that is well managed and supported by technology.
Principal Areas of Work
The SEI carries out its mission through two principal areas of work:
Software Engineering Management Practices
This work focuses on the ability of organizations to predict and control quality, schedule, cost, cycle time, and productivity when acquiring, building, or enhancing software systems.
Software Engineering Technical Practices
This work focuses on the ability of software engineers to analyze, predict, and control selected properties of software systems. Work in this area involves the key choices and tradeoffs that must be made when acquiring, building, or enhancing software systems.
Within these broad areas of work, the SEI has defined specific initiatives that address pervasive and significant issues impeding the ability of organizations to acquire, build, and evolve software-intensive systems predictably on time, within expected cost, and with expected functionality.
Software Maturity Levels:
I - Initial - Basic Management Control
II - Repeatable - Disciplined Process and Process Definition
III - Defined - Standard, Consistent Process and Process Measurement
IV - Managed - Predictable Process and Process Control
V - Optimized - Continuously Improving Process
Level 1 - Initial
Basic Management Control
• Generally Ad-hoc, Redefined for each project, poorly controlled
• Project outcome is characterized by - Frequent, large cost and schedule overruns Poor level of software quality
Level 2 - Repeatable
Disciplined Process and Process Definition
· Predictability increases with basic project controls to track cost, schedule and functionality, SQA and baselines management in place
· No commitments are made without thorough review and ratification
· While development process vary from project to project, management controls are standardized to repeat success on similar projects with similar applications
· Able to meet targeted dates with increased accuracy
· Given success with one project, chances of repeating the same level of performance is high if application area, tools, methods, and staff are largely unchanged
1. Requirement Management
· Register requirements and update requirements baseline, manage requirement driven changes
· Verify the requirements with customer
· Maintain change plan (Process) as per allocation
· Specify how the allocated requirements will be built into the software items, documentation's (Process, execution, Traceability)
· Keep track of the status of requirements (measurement, QA review)
2. Software Quality Assurance
· Plan and perform EQA and IQA activities, verify and validate development process, software activities, procedures, standards and deliverables, communicate results,
· Address non-compliances, take corrective action based on reviews and audits and escalate,
· SQA budget, Mgmt review.
3. Software Project Planning
· Allocate requirements, estimate the work to be performed, document estimates
· Define and prepare the plan of how the software project work will be done,
· Identify milestone and obtain commitment of all concerned
· Obtain resources for executing the project and Review of planned and unplanned activities by PM (measurement)
4. Software Project Tracking and Oversight
· Track actuals such as time, cost, resources utilized & responsibilities,
· Identify jointly the causes of changes in plan, open issues, risk, action items and manage commitment changes
· Monitor project performance against estimates, deliverables, take corrective actions, know the effect of deviations, Mgmt. review (periodic and event based).
5. Software Configuration Management
· Plan SCM activities, Define SCM procedure, use SCM baseline for identifying and tracing software items/ configuration items within each project
· Control of changes to configuration items in baseline
· Audit of SCM, CR/TR status, effort spent on SCM, PM review
6. Software subcontract Management
· Evaluate, select and train sub-contractor as per procedure,
· Exchange technical details, monitor performance and results of sub-contractors ,
· Review of schedules/ actuals by PM, maintain communication, effort spent in monitoring (SQC audit)
Level 3 - Defined
Standard, Consistent Process and Process Measurement
• Technical process for each project is defined in writing at the outset, based upon tailoring of organizational process standards
• Project roles are clearly defined and staff requirements to be trained in standard methods and process activities before they can be assigned to roles
• Technical management activities are guided and synchronized by the defined process (cost decreases, development time becomes shorter, productivity and quality increases)
• Project outcome becomes more predictable across a broader range of projects, even with staff turnover
7. Peer Reviews
• plan and perform methodical review by peer group for identifying, tracking and removing defects from the software, conduct peer review training,
• measure effort spent on peer reviews, review by SQA
8. Intergroup Coordination
• agree on customer requirement
• interface among engineering groups (Analyst, designer, programmer, planner, etc.,)
• interaction of project group with other functional groups like data processing, purchase, quality awareness etc.
• manage inter group issues (incompatible schedule, risk, system level problem), effectiveness of support tools
• time spent on inter group coordination and review by PM
9. Integrated Software Management
• Derive project process from Org process (PM review) plan as per derived project process
• integrate development process, project management and software engineering ,
• Resolve incompatible schedule, risk & system level problems
• measure effectiveness of process, causes & frequency of replanting and effort spent.
10. Software Product Engineering
• Project process followed, traceability of requirement, project management techniques used.
• Software engineering activities (use of appropriate method and tools for development, analysis, design & coding, testing & maintenance), review by SQA
• Ensure consistency (measurement of functionality, defect analysis and effectiveness of testing)
11. Training Programs
• Plan and provide training programs for skill and knowledge development
• Evaluation procedure for obtaining feedback and improving training facilities
• Carrying out improvements in different types of training (class room, guided self-study, on-the job & informal monitoring,) SQA review
12. Organization Process Definition
• Definition and use of standard organizational process in projects, collect data on use of process, estimates on size, actuals, effort, cost, etc.
• training in process, plan and improvement of process, database of process used compiled, guidelines for tailoring of process
• SQA review
13. Organization Process Focus Level 4 - Managed 14. Software Quality Management 15. Quantitative Process Management Level 5 - Optimizing 16. Process Change Management 17. Technology Change Management 18. Defect Prevention
• Responsibility for defining , reviewing and planning improvement of Org. process are coordinated and integrated across the organization,
• Allocate resource and assign responsibility for developing and maintaining organization process, strengths and weakness of process used are identified relative to a process standard
Predictable Process and Process Control
• Critical quantitative quality and productivity measures are established for each defined step and monitored to be sure they stay within control limits
• Strong attention to customer satisfaction ensures that measured quantities reflect this objective
• High predictability is achieved not only for each project as a whole but also for each step of the project process
• set up of quality goals and plan activities for managing quality of software (reliability, functionality, maintainability & usability)
• compare product quality with goal, training in quality management, activity management, (Mgmt review )
• plan quantitative measurement of process performance, actual measurement and control
• analyze process data, review and changes in the process for improving the process performance , ( PM review)
• Establish process capability known in quantitative terms
• Status of activities performed, effort spent, and review by Mgmt.
Continuously Improving Process
• Data collected from each step are used to pinpoint process weakness and bottlenecks
• Process is modified to achieve improved results through designed experiments and pilot trials
• Causes of errors are analyzed and steps are taken to prevent similar errors in the future
• New technologies are regularly reviewed to see how they can foster further improvement
• Continuous process improvement always shifting the goal for better
• set up goals for process improvement
• training for process definition
• involve staff in process improvement
• study effect of implementing process improvement
• evaluate, justify , plan, effect technology change to improve quality and productivity,
• estimate benefits through technology introduction and compare effects of change for review by mgmt.
• analyze defects and common cause of defects, project trends and plan defect prevention, eliminate defect cause
• cost of defect correction and prevention, status of defects. and review by SQA
