Measurement Maturity And The Cmm : How Measurement Practices: Fill & Download for Free

CMMI is the product of a consolidation and reordering of CMM practices and principles. A few key changes have been included in the structure of the model so as to make it more compatible with other standards: there is a “continuous” approach to the improvement programme as well as the “staged” one which was imposed in CMM, measurements have been removed from every single KPA and placed as a separate maturity level 2 process area, the structure of specific and generic practices gives a better framework for continuous improvement in most cases, but sometimes recreate the same kind of issues as we had in CMM with the KPA level measurement and analysis requirement. Finally, CMMI is less focused on software than the CMM, however the focus remains on very heavily on software development at the expense of other forms of engineering (e.g. a strong emphasis continuously repeated on how to satisfy CMMI when using Agile methodologies).

CMM was a good model to measure the maturity of software development organisations. It was so good that it was copied and changed so that it could be used for other things; we had the system CMM, the people CMM and others. ISO adapted it to create ISO12207 and others, the FAA created the ICMM, etc. As things progressed, two basic tendencies started showing up: models that stuck with the concept of 5 maturity models which define what practices an organisation needs to do, depending on how mature it is (in other words, how well it understands and prioritizes its work); other models turned the model sideways and established the idea that all the practices should be performed at every level, but the practice matures.The CMM approach was originally defined for auditing purposes, allowing to establish that an organisation was level X with the understanding that a level 4 company was more trustworthy than a level 3 company. The other approach allowed organisations to guide their improvements, understanding how each practice should evolve over time as more knowledge became available.There came a point when the US DOD, the prime sponsor of the model, determined that they wanted the SEI to consolidate all the CMMs that were out there into a single model. This became the CMM Integration project, which created the CMMI. The CMMI covers more areas, is less software focused and combines the two structures into a matrix-like system which allows both the progression of practices, and the audit of the organisation.The SEI then progressed to create variations on the model, developing the CMMI for Development, the CMMI for Services and the CMMI for Acquisition, which now need to be consolidated again into a single product.

Software Engineering is far more than just computer programming. While coding skills is important, it is also important to understand the fundamentals of Software Engineering. This would be topics like requirements solicitation, SRS and SDD creation, life-cycles, cost analysis, program management, etc. In order to become fully educated on these topics, it would be advisable to find a university that offers Software Engineering courses. Computer Science degrees, for example, will usually have some of these courses. However, you can’t go wrong with a dedicated Software Engineering degree either.If you want to start now, you can look up the topics I’ve outlined above and do a Google Scholar search on them, or a simple Google search.Search for:Dischave - A Waterfall Systems Development MethodologyPaulk - Key practices of the CMMA Spiral Model of Software DevelopmentCapability Mature Model for SoftwareA Framework for the Measurement of Software QualityA Review of Software Quality Models for the Evaluation of Software ProductsSoftware Development Cost Estimating GuidebookRequirements Elicitation A Survey of TechniquesArchitectural Style Design Patterns, Designs Patterns, and ObjectsBuilding a Taxonomy and Nomenclature of Collaborative Writing to Improve Interdisciplinary Research and PracticeSoftware Requirements A TutorialIEEE Standard for Information Technology - Systems Design - Software Design Descriptions (There's one for Software Requirements Specifications as well)What Do You Mean I Can’t Call Myself a Software EngineerWriting Quality RequirementsI don’t know how many of those are freely available, but that should get you started. There is a lot of information out there, much more than I’ve listed here. Good luck!