CMMI Version 1.3

CMMI Version 1.3 is a release of CMMI models, appraisal method, and training for three areas of interest:

• Product and service development (CMMI for Development )
• Service establishment, management, and delivery (CMMI for Services )
• Product and service acquisition (CMMI for Acquisition )

CMMI Version 1.3 is the most recent release of CMMI to the public. It was released on November 1, 2010. This release is special because it updates all three CMMI models (CMMI for Development, CMMI for Services, and CMMI for Acquisition) to make them consistent and to improve their high maturity practices. The CMMI Product Team has reviewed more than 1,150 change requests for the models and 850 for the appraisal method.

Agile Support in CMMI

One major change in CMMI V1.3 is the addition of agile support. Earlier, the SEI published the technical report CMMI or Agile: Why Not Embrace Both, to make clear that CMMI and agile can co-exist. In the CMMI V1.3, agile has been included with an interpretation guideline and by adding notes to the applicable process areas in the introduction of the process area and on how to interpret agile practices.

Constellation Commonality

Version 1.2 of CMMI models were released in recent years. CMMI for Development was released in August 2006, CMMI for Acquisition was released in November 2007, and CMMI for Services was released in February 2009. Because of the time in between these releases, they have become inconsistent. The work done by Version 1.3 ensures the consistency of these models.

High Maturity Clarifications

The CMMI Product Development Team has formed a High Maturity Team. This team’s members are focusing on improvements to high maturity practices in all three CMMI models to ensure that they are representative of current best practices in the community. This team’s work focuses on the four high maturity process areas: Organizational Process Performance (OPP), Quantitative Project Management (QPM), Causal Analysis and Resolution (CAR), and Organizational Innovation and Deployment (OID) - CMMI V1.2 / Organizational Performance Management(OPM) - CMMI V1.3.

Translations

CMMI models are now available in Japanese, Traditional Chinese, Spanish, German, and French. The teams that created these translations have requested that we improve the models’ ease of translation. During the development of CMMI Version 1.3, a team with representation from these translation teams is working with the model development team to make model translation easier.

Expanded Coverage

A number of change requests have suggested further expansion of CMMI models in new directions. Although this release is not suitable for major expansions like the ones in two most recently released constellations, information was added on customer satisfaction, software architecture, and Agile Methods.

Multi-Constellation Coverage

Many students taking either of the one-day supplement courses that cover acquisition or service delivery have commented that many organizations span more than one area of interest. One theme for the V1.3 release is to enable sharing of best practices across the constellations. The SCAMPI Method Definition Document is being improved to facilitate appraisals that use process areas from multiple constellations.

Benefits

The benefits you can expect from using CMMI include the following:

• Your organization's activities are explicitly linked to your business objectives.
• Your visibility into the organization's activities is increased to help you ensure that your product or service meets the customer's expectations.
• You learn from new areas of best practice (e.g., measurement, risk)

CMMI is being adopted worldwide, including North America, Europe, Asia, Australia, South America, Yemen, and Africa. This kind of response has substantiated the SEI's commitment to CMMI.

References

CMMI V1.3: Where to find information? [1]

Performance Results of CMMI [2]