Chapter 13: Costs

12.3 CMMI B/CR Methodology

The B/CR methodology for Capability Maturity Model Integration is a procedure to measure, quantify, and analyze the ratio of benefits to costs. The ratio of benefits to costs for Capability Maturity Model Integration is high because of productivity increases and reductions in software maintenance costs. In fact, the majority of the benefits are due to the institutionalization of peer reviews or the Software Inspection Process. Higher quality and lower maintenance costs result from using peer reviews. A small part of the benefits are derived from increased productivity. Adherence to U.S. Department of Defense policy for supplier selection results from using Capability Maturity Model Integration . B/CR is the economic magnitude of using Capability Maturity Model Integration to create a new and improved software process. Its B/CR methodology is a two-part process that consists of estimating special costs and the B/CR. Its benefit methodology consists of combining the benefits together with the special costs using a simple B/CR formula. Key elements include isolating the special, new, or additional costs and using the output of earlier total life cycle cost models. These are used to form an early picture of the economic value of Capability Maturity Model Integration . Figure 63 illustrates the B/CR methodology for Capability Maturity Model Integration .

Figure 63: B/CR Methodology for Capability Maturity Model Integration

Estimate special costs for CMMI : The objective of this activity is to identify and separate the costs associated with CMMI from common software development costs. This substep includes: add process, product, preparation, assessment, and meeting costs for CMMI .

Estimate B/CR for CMMI : The objective of this activity is to measure the magnitude of the benefits to the costs for implementing the Capability Maturity Model Integration . This substep includes: divide benefits by special costs for CMMI .