What are the CMMI and the SW-CMM?
The Capability Maturity Model is a baseline of key practices that should be implemented by any entity developing or maintaining a product which is completely or partially software. With the SW-CMM, the emphasis is on the software practices whereas with the CMMI, we can find both software and systems practices. We can imagine that these models would be the outcome of vast consultation of successful projects which would then be documented in a model of what to do to carry out projects with success and to improve continuously, and recommended to the software and systems engineering community. Published by the SEI, it has been largely used by the software community to assess the maturity of the software processes used by companies and agencies, to develop improvement plans, or as a reference book to implement more mature practices. One can say that the CMMI and the SW-CMM have become “de facto” standards.
