CMMI® Training

Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) is a process improvement approach whose goal is to help organisations improve their performance. CMMI can be used to guide process improvement across a project, a division, or an entire organisation.

CMMI in software engineering and organisational development is a process improvement approach that provides organizations with the essential elements for effective process improvement.

According to the Software Engineering Institute (SEI), CMMI helps "integrate traditionally separate organisational functions, set process improvement goals and priorities, provide guidance for quality processes, and provide a point of reference for appraising current processes.

CMMI currently addresses three areas of interest:

• Product and service development — CMMI for Development
• Service establishment, management, and delivery — CMMI for Services
• Product and service acquisition — CMMI for Acquisition

CMMI was developed by a group of experts from industry, government, and the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) at Carnegie Mellon University. CMMI models provide guidance for developing or improving processes that meet the business goals of an organization. A CMMI model may also be used as a framework for appraising the process maturity of the organization.

CMMI originated in software engineering but has been highly generalised over the years to embrace other areas of interest, such as the development of hardware products, the delivery of all kinds of services, and the acquisition of products and services. The word "software" does not appear in definitions of CMMI. This generalisation of improvement concepts makes CMMI extremely abstract. It is not as specific to software engineering as its predecessor, the Software CMM.