Process maturity models
Process maturity models
The Software Engineering Institute at Carnegie Mellon created a standard in the mid-90s called the "Capability Maturity Model." This model could "rank" an organization's software development lifecycle from one to five based on its process maturity.
CMMI, successor to CMM, uses these five maturity levels:
- Initial: ad hoc, chaotic processes
- Managed: some processes are in place
- Defined: processes improved over time and standardized
- Quantitatively Managed: metrics used and analyzed
- Optimizing: continual improvement via metrics with little variation
COBIT, giving credit to CMM, uses these six maturity levels:
- Non-existent: no process
- Initial/Ad Hoc: no standard process
- Repeatable but Intuitive: similar procedures but no formal training, with lots of individual knowledge required
- Defined Process: standardized and documented processes
- Managed and Measurable: metrics used to ensure processes used
- Optimized: processes are refined and working well
(The text summaries describing each maturity level are not from the sources; they are summaries for the reader's benefit.)
Process assessments will often use maturity models like these to help quantify how an organization is performing.
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