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SEI CMMI Process Areas

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A Process Area is a cluster of related practices in an area that, when implemented collectively, satisfy a set of goals considered important for making significant improvement in that area. All CMMI process areas are common to both continuous and staged representations.

The continuous representation enables the organization to choose the focus of its process improvement efforts by choosing those process areas, or sets of interrelated process areas, that best benefit the organization and its business objectives. Although there are some limits on what an organization can choose because of the dependencies among process areas, the organization has considerable freedom in its selection.

Once you select the process areas, you must also select how much you would like to improve the processes associated with those process areas (i.e., select the appropriate capability level). Capability levels and generic goals and practices support the improvement of processes in individual process areas.

Conversely, you will see that the staged representation encourages you to always look at process areas in the context of the maturity level to which they belong. The process areas are organized by maturity levels to reinforce this concept. When you use a process area, you use the entire process area: all goals and all practices.

The CMMI Process Areas (PAs) can be grouped into the following four categories to understand their interactions and links with one another regardless of their defined level:

Each process area is defined by a set of goals and practices. There are two categories of goals and practices:

A process area is satisfied when company processes cover all of the generic and specific goals and practices for that process area.

Generic goals and practices:

Generic goals and practices are a part of every process area.

NOTATIONS:GG --> Generic Goals and GP --> Generic Practice

Common Features:

The common features are attributes that indicate whether the implementation and institutionalization of a key process area is effective, repeatable, and lasting. The five common features are listed below:

The practices in the common feature Activities Performed describe what must be implemented to establish a process capability. The other practices, taken as a whole, form the basis by which an organization can institutionalize the practices described in the Activities Performed common feature.

Process Areas Detail:

The CMMI contains 22 process areas indicating the aspects of product development that are to be covered by company processes.

Causal Analysis and Resolution (CAR)

Purpose

The purpose of Causal Analysis and Resolution (CAR) is to identify causes of defects and other problems and take action to prevent them from occurring in the future.

Specific Practices by Goal

Configuration Management (CM)

Purpose

The purpose of Configuration Management (CM) is to establish and maintain the integrity of work products using configuration identification, configuration control, configuration status accounting, and configuration audits.

Specific Practices by Goal

Decision Analysis and Resolution (DAR)

Purpose

The purpose of Decision Analysis and Resolution (DAR) is to analyze possible decisions using a formal evaluation process that evaluates identified alternatives against established criteria.

Specific Practices by Goal

Integrated Project Management +IPPD (IPM)

Purpose

The purpose of Integrated Project Management +IPPD (IPM) is to establish and manage the project and the involvement of the relevant stakeholders according to an integrated and defined process that is tailored from the organization's set of standard processes.

Specific Practices by Goal

IPPD Addition:

Measurement and Analysis (MA)

Purpose

The purpose of Measurement and Analysis (MA) is to develop and sustain a measurement capability that is used to support management information needs.

Specific Practices by Goal

Organizational Innovation and Deployment (OID)

Purpose

The purpose of Organizational Innovation and Deployment (OID) is to select and deploy incremental and innovative improvements that measurably improve the organization's processes and technologies. The improvements support the organization's quality and process-performance objectives as derived from the organization's business objectives.

Specific Practices by Goal

Organizational Process Definition +IPPD (OPD)

Purpose

The purpose of Organizational Process Definition +IPPD (OPD) is to establish and maintain a usable set of organizational process assets.

Specific Practices by Goal

IPPD Addition:

Organizational Process Focus (OPF)

Purpose

The purpose of Organizational Process Focus (OPF) is to plan and implement organizational process improvement based on a thorough understanding of the current strengths and weaknesses of the organization's processes and process assets.

Specific Practices by Goal

Organizational Process Performance (OPP)

Purpose

The purpose of Organizational Process Performance (OPP) is to establish and maintain a quantitative understanding of the performance of the organization's set of standard processes in support of quality and process-performance objectives, and to provide the process performance data, baselines, and models to quantitatively manage the organization's projects.

Specific Practices by Goal

Organizational Training (OT)

Purpose

The purpose of Organizational Training (OT) is to develop the skills and knowledge of people so they can perform their roles effectively and efficiently.

Specific Practices by Goal

Product Integration (PI)

Purpose

The purpose of Product Integration (PI) is to assemble the product from the product components, ensure that the product, as integrated, functions properly, and deliver the product.

Specific Practices by Goal

Project Monitoring and Control (PMC)

Purpose

The purpose of Project Monitoring and Control (PMC) is to provide an understanding of the project's progress so that appropriate corrective actions can be taken when the project's performance deviates significantly from the plan.

Specific Practices by Goal

Project Planning (PP)

Purpose

The purpose of Project Planning (PP) is to establish and maintain plans that define project activities.

Specific Practices by Goal

Process and Product Quality Assurance (PPQA)

Purpose

The purpose of Process and Product Quality Assurance (PPQA) is to provide staff and management with objective insight into processes and associated work products.

Specific Practices by Goal

Quantitative Project Management (QPM)

Purpose

The purpose of the Quantitative Project Management (QPM) process area is to quantitatively manage the project's defined process to achieve the project's established quality and process-performance objectives.

Specific Practices by Goal

Requirements Development (RD)

Purpose

The purpose of Requirements Development (RD) is to produce and analyze customer, product, and product-component requirements.

Specific Practices by Goal

Requirements Management (REQM)

Purpose

The purpose of Requirements Management (REQM) is to manage the requirements of the project's products and product components and to identify inconsistencies between those requirements and the project's plans and work products.

Specific Practices by Goal

Risk Management (RSKM)

Purpose

The purpose of Risk Management (RSKM) is to identify potential problems before they occur so that risk-handling activities can be planned and invoked as needed across the life of the product or project to mitigate adverse impacts on achieving objectives.

Specific Practices by Goal

Supplier Agreement Management (SAM)

Purpose

The purpose of Supplier Agreement Management (SAM) is to manage the acquisition of products from suppliers for which there exists a formal agreement.

Specific Practices by Goal

Technical Solution (TS)

Purpose

The purpose of Technical Solution (TS) is to design, develop, and implement solutions to requirements. Solutions, designs, and implementations encompass products, product components, and product-related life-cycle processes either singly or in combination as appropriate.

Specific Practices by Goal

Validation (VAL)

Purpose

The purpose of Validation (VAL) is to demonstrate that a product or product component fulfills its intended use when placed in its intended environment.

Specific Practices by Goal

Verification (VER)

Purpose

The purpose of Verification (VER) is to ensure that selected work products meet their specified requirements.

Specific Practices by Goal

Changes made in Version 1.2

Only changes made to the set of Process Areas are considered here. For a more detail visit the SEI homepage.

What is Next:

Now you have completed all the major sessions related to CMMI. In the next chapter we will discuss CMMI Appraisals.

CMMI Appraisal is an examination of one or more processes by a trained team of professionals using an appraisal reference model as the basis for determining strengths and weaknesses.

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