What is CMM? Explain briefly.

Concept

A process-maturity model evaluates how consistently an organization defines, manages, measures, and improves its software processes.

Greater maturity means that results depend less on individual effort and more on institutionalized, measurable practices.

Application

In software engineering, CMM stands for Capability Maturity Model for Software. Developed by the Software Engineering Institute (SEI), it gives organizations an evolutionary framework for assessing their present software-process maturity and planning systematic improvement.

1. Initial: Processes are largely ad hoc and unpredictable; success depends mainly on individual effort.

2. Repeatable: Basic project-management controls allow earlier successes to be repeated on similar projects.

3. Defined: An organization-wide, documented standard software process is established and used by projects.

4. Managed: Process and product quality are measured and controlled quantitatively, making performance more predictable.

5. Optimizing: Continuous improvement is driven by defect prevention, feedback, measurement, and process innovation.

Cross-check

CMM assesses an organization’s software-process capability, not an individual programmer’s skill or a product’s feature list. Each higher level builds on the process discipline established below it.

Result

Therefore, CMM helps an organization identify its current maturity level, select improvement priorities, and move from ad hoc development toward predictable, continuously improving software processes.