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SEI CMM classifies software development industries into the following five maturity levels. The different levels of SEI CMM have been designed so that it is easy for an organization to slowly build its quality system starting from scratch.


Level 1: Initial. A software development organization at this level is characterized by ad hoc activities. Very few or no processes are defined and followed. Since software production processes are not defined, different engineers follow their own process and as a result development efforts become chaotic. Therefore, it is also called chaotic level. The success of projects depends on individual efforts and heroics. When engineers leave, the successors have great difficulty in understanding the process followed and the work completed. Since formal project management practices are not followed, under time pressure short cuts are tried out leading to low quality.

Level 2: Repeatable. At this level, the basic project management practices such as tracking cost and schedule are established. Size and cost estimation techniques like function point analysis, COCOMO, etc. are used. The necessary process discipline is in place to repeat earlier success on projects with similar applications. Please remember that opportunity to repeat a process exists only when a company produces a family of products.


Level 3: Defined. At this level the processes for both management and development activities are defined and documented. There is a common organization-wide understanding of activities, roles, and responsibilities. The processes though defined, the process and product qualities are not measured. ISO 9000 aims at achieving this level.


Level 4: Managed. At this level, the focus is on software metrics. Two types of metrics are collected. Product metrics measure the characteristics of the product being developed, such as its size, reliability, time complexity, understandability, etc. Process metrics reflect the effectiveness of the process being used, such as average defect correction time, productivity, average number of defects found per hour inspection, average number of failures detected during testing per LOC, etc. Quantitative quality goals are set for the products. The software process and product quality are measured and quantitative quality requirements for the product are met. Various tools like Pareto charts, fishbone diagrams, etc. are used to measure the product and process quality. The process metrics are used to check if a project performed satisfactorily. Thus, the results of process measurements are used to evaluate project performance rather than improve the process.


Level 5: Optimizing. At this stage, process and product metrics are collected. Process and product measurement data are analyzed for continuous process improvement. For example, if from an analysis of the process measurement results, it was found that the code reviews were not very effective and a large number of errors were detected only during the unit testing, then the process may be fine tuned to make the review more effective. Also, the lessons learned from specific projects are incorporated in to the process. Continuous process improvement is achieved both by carefully analyzing the quantitative feedback from the process measurements and also from application of innovative ideas and technologies. Such an organization identifies the best software engineering practices and innovations which may be tools, methods, or processes. These best practices are transferred throughout the organization.

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