What is the difference between the SW-CMM and the CMMI?
The Capability Maturity Model exists since 1991. Since many other models, in domains other than software development, have used the letters “CMM”, the CMM was re-baptized as the SW-CMM (the letters “SW” referring to software). The current version (version 1.1) was going to be replaced by version 2.0 in 1998. Just before its publication, the SEI redirected its effort toward the integration of system and software practices, since they are often linked in the context of industrial real projects. The SEI wanted to clean house of the abundance of models that had been developed in the interim. This led toward a combined and integrated model called CMMI (the “I” refers to integration). Fortunately, this model reused the entire draft version 2.0 of the SW-CMM which constituted one of the major inputs to CMMI. The SEI, while progressively encouraging the use of the CMMI model rather than the SW-CMM, will continue to support the SW-CMM during the transition phase, expected to last until end of 2
