3.5 ISO 9001

3.4 Software Capability Maturity Model

The Software Capability Maturity Model is a set of guidelines for selecting software suppliers and performing SPI. The Software Capability Maturity Model is a set of fundamental criteria for software project management called key practices. The Software Capability Maturity Model is a set of minimum screening criteria for discriminating among U.S. Department of Defense software suppliers. It is considered a set of criteria for analyzing the performance of software organizations. It helps them establish priorities for corrective action and guides them to the peak of operating efficiency.

There are two fundamental ways to apply the Software Capability Maturity Model . The first is for a government agency or firm to use these criteria to judge how many of the key practices are met by suppliers. The second is for a software organization to use these criteria to judge how many of the key practices it meets.

The goal of the Software Capability Maturity Model is to serve as a tool for government agencies. It is used to help them to discriminate among their suppliers based upon how good they are at software project management. A related goal is the improvement of software project management practices. Figure 4 illustrates the Software Capability Maturity Model .

Figure 4: Software Capability Maturity Model Levels

A total of 316 criteria or key practices comprise the Software Capability Maturity Model . The 316 criteria or key practices of the Software Capability Maturity Model are divided into five major plateaus called levels. The five levels are initial, repeatable, defined, managed, and optimizing. The five levels represent increasing compliance with the 316 criteria and use of basic principles in project management. The five levels are further subdivided into 18 key process areas. The key process areas represent logical groupings of the 316 criteria or key practices.

It is important to note that the 18 key process areas are even further divided into five common features. The first three common features are commitment to perform, ability to perform, and activities performed. The final two common features are measurement and analysis and verifying implementation. The 316 criteria are eventually divided among each of the common features within the key process areas. The common features are a distinctive characteristic of the Software Capability Maturity Model . Adhering to the criteria within all of the common features is believed to enable successful SPI at the organizational level. A well-known firm exhibited 10-fold increases in cost efficiency, productivity, cycle time reduction, and quality using this model