CMMI for Acquisition: Guidelines for Improving the Acquisition of Products and Services, 2nd Edition

Which CMMI book is right for you? Sandra Shrum and Mike Phillips describe the differences among CMMI for Acquisition, CMMI for Development, and CMMI for Services. Find out more.

Product Author Bios

Brian P. Gallagher is the director of ISR Mission Systems Engineering within the ISR Systems Division, Mission Systems Sector, Northrop Grumman, where he is responsible for leading a team of senior engineers with expertise in the discipline of systems engineering and its practical application to large-scale, mission-critical ISR systems. Prior to this position, Brian was director of acquisition support at the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) where he was responsible for building teams from across the SEI’s disciplines to support the Department of Defense and other government agency acquisition programs. Brian was previously employed with the Aerospace Corporation where he worked as a software acquisition and engineering advisor for several Air Force and NRO projects. During his Air Force career, he was the deputy chief of Software Engineering with an Air Intelligence Agency remote intelligence site; chief software engineer on the Range Operations Control Center Project at Cape Canaveral AFS, Florida; a software project manager for the Titan IV Program Office; and a software engineer with Strategic Air Command. He received his B.S. in management information systems from Peru State College and his M.S. in computer science/software engineering from Florida Institute of Technology.

Mike Phillips is the program manager for CMMI at the Software Engineering Institute (SEI), a position created to lead the Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) product suite evolution. He has led the team, which spans government, industry, and the SEI, through three significant upgrades to the original version of the integrated model, which now covers engineering, acquisition, and services. He was previously responsible for Transition Enabling activities at the SEI. He has authored Technical Reports, Technical Notes, CMMI Columns, and various articles in addition to presenting CMMI material at conferences around the world. Prior to his retirement as a colonel from the Air Force, he was the program manager of the $36B development program for the B-2 stealth bomber in the B-2 System Program Office at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio. He also has four years of experience guiding acquisition programs in the Pentagon for both the Air Force and the Office of the Secretary of Defense. He holds a B.S. in astronautical engineering from the Air Force Academy, an M.S. in nuclear engineering from Georgia Tech, an M.S. in systems management from the University of Southern California, and an M.S. in international affairs from Salve Regina College and the Naval War College. He is a graduate of the Program Management Course at the Defense Systems Management College and  of the Air Force Test Pilot School.

Dr. Karen J. Richter is a research analyst and senior project leader at the Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA), a research and development “think tank” for the Department of Defense. She has led numerous projects for the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics (OUSD(AT&L)) in acquisition management; systems and software engineering, integration, and interoperability; system life-cycle process management; integrated product and process development (IPPD) and concurrent engineering; advanced manufacturing practices and virtual enterprises; system quality, reliability, and maintainability; design and manufacturing technology including modeling and simulation; and life-cycle affordability. She also led or participated in projects for the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy (OUSD(P)) and the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Networks and Information Integration (ASD[NII)). She was a member of the development teams for the CMMI SE/SW/IPPD and CMMI-DEV models and co-chair of the development team for CMMI-ACQ. She has served on the CMMI Configuration Control Board and the CMMI Steering Group. She helped develop international standards on life-cycle process management, systems engineering, software engineering, and quality management as a member of both ISO/JTC1/Subcommittee 7 (Software and Systems Engineering) Working Group 7 (Life Cycle Management) and ISO/TC176 (Quality). She taught in the Department of Engineering Mechanics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and in the Departments of Mechanical Engineering at The Ohio State University and the University of Maryland at College Park. She is the coauthor of three college engineering textbooks. She earned a B.A. in mathematics from Knox College and an M.S. and Ph.D. in engineering mechanics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Sandy Shrum is a senior writer/editor and communications point of contact for the Software Engineering Process Management program at the Software Engineering Institute. Besides this book, she has coauthored two other CMMI books: CMMI® for Services: Guidelines for Superior Service (Addison-Wesley, 2010) and two editions of CMMI®: Guidelines for Process Integration and Product Improvement (Addison-Wesley). She has been with the SEI since 1995 and has been a member of the CMMI Development Team since the CMMI project’s inception in 1998. Her roles on the project have included model author, small review team member, reviewer, editor, model development process coordinator, and quality assurance process owner. Before joining the SEI, Sandy worked for eight years as a document developer with Legent Corporation, a Virginia-based software company. Her experience as a technical communicator dates back to 1988, when she earned her M.S. in professional writing from Carnegie Mellon University. Her undergraduate degree, a B.S. in business administration, was earned at Gannon University, Erie, Pennsylvania.

CMMI® for Acquisition (CMMI-ACQ) describes best practices for the successful acquisition of products and services. Providing a practical framework for improving acquisition processes, CMMI-ACQ addresses the growing trend in business and government for organizations to purchase or outsource required products and services as an alternative to in-house development or resource allocation. Changes in CMMI-ACQ Version 1.3 include improvements to high maturity process areas, improvements to the model architecture to simplify use of multiple models, and added guidance about using preferred suppliers.

CMMI® for Acquisition, Second Edition, is the definitive reference for CMMI-ACQ Version 1.3. In addition to the entire revised CMMI-ACQ model, the book includes updated tips, hints, cross-references, and other author notes to help you understand, apply, and quickly find information about the content of the acquisition process areas. The book now includes more than a dozen contributed essays to help guide the adoption and use of CMMI-ACQ in industry and government. Whether you are new to CMMI models or are already familiar with one or more of them, you will find this book an essential resource for managing your acquisition processes and improving your overall performance.

The book is divided into three parts.

Part One introduces CMMI-ACQ in the broad context of CMMI models, including essential concepts and useful background. It then describes and shows the relationships among all the components of the CMMI-ACQ process areas, and explains paths to the adoption and use of the model for process improvement and benchmarking. Several original essays share insights and real experiences with CMMI-ACQ in both industry and government environments.

Part Two first describes generic goals and generic practices, and then details the twenty-two CMMI-ACQ process areas, including specific goals, specific practices, and examples. These process areas are organized alphabetically and are tabbed by process area acronym to facilitate quick reference.

Part Three provides several useful resources, including sources of further information about CMMI and CMMI-ACQ, acronym definitions, a glossary of terms, and an index.

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Online Sample Chapter

Introduction to CMMI for Acquisition: Guidelines for Improving the Acquisition of Products and Services

Table of Contents

Foreword xi

About Process Improvement 5

About Capability Maturity Models 6

Evolution of CMMI 7

CMMI Framework 9

CMMI for Acquisition 10

Core Process Areas and CMMI Models 11

Required, Expected, and Informative Components 11

Components Associated with Part Two 12

Supporting Informative Components 18

Numbering Scheme 20

Typographical Conventions 20

Understanding Levels 25

Structures of the Continuous and Staged Representations 26

Understanding Capability Levels 29

Understanding Maturity Levels 31

Process Areas 36

Achieving High Maturity 42

Project Processes 47

Organizational Processes 51

Support Processes 52

High Maturity Processes 54

Adopting CMMI 57

Your Process Improvement Program 58

Selections That Influence Your Program 58

CMMI Models 59

Using CMMI Appraisals 60

Appraisal Requirements for CMMI 61

SCAMPI Appraisal Methods 61

Appraisal Considerations 62

CMMI Related Training 63

Critical Issues in Government Acquisition 65

The IPIC Experience 74

CMMI: The Heart of the Air Force’s Systems Engineering Assessment Model and Enabler to Integrated Systems Engineering–Beyond the Traditional Realm 86

Lessons Learned by DGA on CMMI-ACQ 95

CMMI-ACQ and the “Three R’s” of DoD Acquisition 100

Use of CMMI at the U.S. Government Accountability Office 105

An Industry Perspective on CMMI-ACQ 108

CMMI-ACQ in Industry: Future Possibilities 122

Acquisition Strategy: Planning for Success 125

Agreements: They Are Not Just with Suppliers 131

Acquisition Verification: The Challenges 133

Transition to Operations: Delivering Value 137

Interoperable Acquisition 139

Acquisition Agility 143

Employing Agile in DoD Acquisition 151

Acquisition Improvement: Identifying and Removing

Process Constraints 156

Expanding Capabilities Across the Constellations 163

Generic Goals and Generic Practices 169

Agreement Management 191

Acquisition Requirements Development 199

Acquisition Technical Management 215

Acquisition Validation 229

Acquisition Verification 237

Causal Analysis and Resolution 247

Configuration Management 257

Decision Analysis and Resolution 271

Integrated Project Management 281

Measurement and Analysis 299

Organizational Process Definition 319

Organizational Process Focus 333

Organizational Performance Management 349

Organizational Process Performance 369

Organizational Training 383

Project Monitoring and Control 395

Project Planning 411

Process and Product Quality Assurance 443

Quantitative Project Management 451

Requirements Management 471

Risk Management 479

Solicitation and Supplier Agreement Development 497

Appendix A: References 517

Appendix B: Acronyms 523

Appendix C: CMMI Version 1.3 Project Participants 527

Appendix D: Glossary 535

Sample Pages

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