What is CMMI?

CMMI is a process improvement approach that consists of best practices that address the development and maintenance of products and services covering the product life cycle from conception through delivery and maintenance across a project, a division, or an entire organization. CMMI helps integrate traditionally separate organizational functions, set process improvement goals and priorities, provide guidance for quality processes, and provide a point of reference for appraising current processes.

CMMI is a recognized standard developed by a coalition of industry, government and the SEI to objectively assess the full range of an organization's engineering capability. SEI is a federally funded research and development center sponsored by the U.S. Department of Defense and operated by Carnegie Mellon University. The disciplines available in CMMI models include systems engineering, software engineering, integrated product and process development, and supplier sourcing.

There are five maturity levels. Each level is a layer in the foundation for continuous process improvement using a proven sequence of improvements, beginning with basic management practices and progressing through a predefined and proven path of successive levels.

Global Acceptance

CMMI is being adopted worldwide, including North America, Europe, Asia, Australia, South America, and Africa which helps to establish a common “language” and framework for process improvement across the supply chain for global operations.

Benefits

The CMMI Product Suite is at the forefront of process improvement because it provides the latest best practices for product and service development and maintenance. CMMI-based process improvement benefits include:

• Improved schedule and budget predictability
  
  
• Improved cycle time
  
  
• Increased productivity
  
  
• Improved quality (as measured by defects)
  
  
• Increased customer satisfaction
  
  
• Improved employee morale
  
  
• Increased return on investment
  
  
• Decreased cost of quality

Capability Maturity Model, CMM, and CMMI are registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office by Carnegie Mellon University.