ARBA
MINCH UNIVERSITY
INSTITUTE
OF TECHNOLOGY
COMPUTER SCIENCE DEPARTMENT
Drawbacks of Capability Maturity Model (CMM)
By Abebe Ano, smsc Scholar, Id no. smsc/150/06
Submitted
to:
- Dr.Hussien Seid
July, 2015
Abstract
The Capacity Maturity Model was developed as a result
of a study financed by the U.S. Air Force as a technique to objectively
evaluate the work of software subcontractors. The Department of Defense
concerned over rising software development costs and issues with quality. The
main purpose of this study paper is to investigate the drawback of CMM and to
generate the proper solution based on the multi-dimensional services of the
process. Some drawbacks are: the organizations that use CMM, they look at each
level as a target and they make their goal to reach the next level up. This can
be a dangerous thought because if you become fixated on reaching the next
level, The challenges faced in using CMM in the software development
process is that you begin to lose
perspective and forget that the real goal. Similarly the CMM does not specify a
particular way of achieving those goals. In order to achieve them one needs to
think in a flexible way. Another challenge is that CMM only helps if it is put
into place early in the software development process. Finally, there is an
assignment to resolve and improve the drawbacks for the whole software process
development organizations.
Key words: Capacity Maturity Model, Software
development process, Drawbacks, Levels
1. Introduction
The Capability
Maturity Model (CMM) is
a development model produced after study of data collected from organizations
that contracted with the U.S. Department of Defense who founded
the research. The term "maturity" relates to the degree of formality
and optimization of processes, from informal practices
to formally defined steps, to managed result metrics, to active optimization of
the process. The model's aim is to improve existing
software-development processes, but it can
also be applied to other processes. (1) The Capability Maturity Model is a way
of measurement that is designed to develop and treat the software development
process used by an organization. The software development itself is enhanced by
using the 5 level models eighteen key process areas within it. The basis for
Capability Maturity Model evaluation is described in the following points: It permits
the application of more complex management methods based on quantitative
approaches. This basically means that the organization has increased capacity
to control quality of the software development process and it also enables them
to improve the efficiency of this process. Organizations can review their
achievements and set clear goals needed in order to reach the next level in the
model. The process areas defined in each of the levels is generic. This allows
the model to be used by a wide range of organizations because it allows the use
of any life cycle model (waterfall, prototype, extreme programming etc). (2)
1)
Initial
level: The software process is characterized as unplanned, crisis driven, no
management mechanism, unpredictable cost and occasionally even chaotic. Few
processes are defined, and success depends on individual effort.
2)
Repeatable
level: Basic project management processes are introduced to track cost,
schedule, and functionality. Experienced at doing similar works and policies
for managing a software project and procedures implementing those policies are
established. The necessary process discipline is in place to repeat earlier
successes on projects with similar applications.
3)
Defined level: The software process for both
management and engineering activities is documented, standardized, and
integrated into a standard software process for the organization. All projects
use an approved, tailored version of the organization's standard software process
for developing and maintaining software. When faced with a crisis they will
continue to use the process that has been defined and there is little data to
support the effectiveness of the process
4)
Managed level: complete measures of the
software process and product quality are collected. Both the software process
and products are quantitatively understood and controlled. High coast of gathering data, definition
of the measured data, process data must not be used to compare projects or
individuals and an organization sets quantitative quality goals for both
products and processes and instruments processes with well defined and
consistent measurements
5)
Optimizing level: Continuous process
improvement is enabled by quantitative feedback from the process and from
piloting innovative ideas and technologies. The data is available to tune the
process itself, ability to put the resources where it counts and the entire
organization is focused on continuous process improvement. (3)
1.1. Disadvantages of Capacity Maturity Model (CMM):
1. One of which is that when organizations
use CMM, they look at each level as a target. 2. The CMM does not specify a
particular way of achieving those goals. 3. The goals will only be achieved if
the organizations processes are taken into account, as each organization is
different so the steps needed for process improvement will be different. 4. The CMM only helps if
it is put into place early in the software development process. For example, if
there is a process that is in a crisis then CMM will not help overnight. It can’t be used as an emergency method
of recovering from a difficult position. (4)
Below
is a diagram showing the different levels involved in the Capability Maturity
Model and the various process areas contained within them:
2. Methods and materials
The methodology of this study paper
includes: referring the lecture note details
and the written literatures/documents about Capacity Maturity Model with its
drawbacks which are prepared by the software development companies from
internet links.
3. Results
Organizations believed
that CMM as a standard for appraising the current state of the organization’s
software process and as a guide for identifying and prioritizing the actions
comprising the software process improvement
effort, but this study paper tried to investigate and expose the drawbacks as a result, which can open the
door for further improvements.
4.
Discussion:
As the study paper
discussed above CMM has numerous strong sides with some drawbacks. The
significance of the result can push organizations will overcome the drawbacks
by increasing Creativity and research on improvement of Capacity Maturity
Model.
References
1. www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/. [Online]
2. www.searchsoftwarequality.teachtarget.com.
[Online]
3. www.resources.sci.cmu.edu/asset-files.
[Online]
4. www.cs.nott.ac.UK.
[Online]
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