What is SEI Capability Maturity Model?

SEI Capability Maturity Model:

SEI CMM was proposed by the Software Engineering Institute of Carnegie Mellon University, USA. CMM is patterned after the pioneering work of Philip Crosby who published his maturity grid of five evolutionary stages:

Level 1: Initial
A software development organisation at this level is characterised by ad-hoc activities. Very few or no processes are defined and followed. Since software production processes are not defined, different engineers follow their process and as a result development efforts become chaotic. Therefore, it is also called a chaotic level.

Level 2: Repeatable
At this level, basic project management practices such as tracking costs and schedules are established. Configuration management tools are used on items identified for configuration control. Size and cost estimation techniques such as function point analysis, COCOMO, etc.,

Level 3: Defined
At this level, the processes for both management and development activities are defined and documented. There is a common
organisation-wide understanding of activities, roles, and responsibilities.

Level 4: Managed
At this level, the focus is on software metrics. Both process and product metrics are collected. Quantitative quality goals are set for the products and at the time of completion of development, it was checked whether the quantitative quality goals for the product are met.

Level 5: Optimising
At this stage, process and product metrics are collected. Process and product measurement data are analysed for continuous process improvement.