CMMI for Services: Guidelines for Superior Service, 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

Eileen Forrester is the manager of the CMMI for Services program at the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) and a senior member of the technical staff. She was the co-chair of the International Process Research Consortium and the editor of the IPRC Process Research Framework. Eileen is the developer of TransPlant, a transition-planning process, and her current research area is in process-oriented approaches to service delivery, technology change, risk management, and emergent system types. These approaches include GAIT, CMMI for Services, OCTAVE, MDA, and multimodel improvement approaches. She has more than thirty-five years of experience in technology transition, strategic planning, process improvement, communication planning, and in managing product, service, and nonprofit organizations.

Brandon L. Buteau is a Technical Fellow, technologist, and process architect at Northrop Grumman. He has been a member of the CMMI for Services model development team from its beginning, and is both the chief architect for the model and the team’s ontologist. His professional career of more than thirty-five years has spanned the analysis and development of advanced systems, technology, and processes. Brandon currently helps to define and develop quality and process architectures as well as supporting tools. He leads, performs, coordinates, and consults on research, strategic analyses, technology assessments, knowledge/information modeling, and business development across a spectrum of technologies needed by customers. He received a B.A. in applied mathematics (computer science) from Harvard University in 1976.

Sandy Shrum is a senior writer/editor and communications point of contact for the Software Engineering Process Management program at the Software Engineering Institute (SEI). Along with this book, she has coauthored two other CMMI books: CMMI®-ACQ: Guidelines for Improving the Acquisition of Products and Services (Addison-Wesley, 2009) 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 Services (CMMI-SVC) is a comprehensive set of guidelines to help organizations establish and improve processes for delivering services. By adapting and extending proven standards and best practices to reflect the unique challenges faced in service industries, CMMI-SVC offers providers a practical and focused framework for achieving higher levels of service quality, controlling costs, improving schedules, and ensuring user satisfaction. A member of the newest CMMI model, CMMI-SVC Version 1.3, reflects changes to the model made for all constellations, including clarifications of high-maturity practices, alignment of the sixteen core process areas, and improvements in the SCAMPI appraisal method.

The indispensable CMMI® for Services, Second Edition, is both an introduction to the CMMI-SVC model and an authoritative reference for it. The contents include the complete model itself, formatted for quick reference. In addition, the book’s authors have refined the model’s introductory chapters; provided marginal notes to clarify the nature of particular process areas and to show why their practices are valuable; and inserted longer sidebars to explain important concepts. Brief essays by people with experience in different application areas further illustrate how the model works in practice and what benefits it offers.

The book is divided into three parts.

Part One begins by thoroughly explaining CMMI-SVC, its concepts, and its use. The authors provide robust information about service concepts, including a discussion of lifecycles in service environments; outline how to start using CMMI-SVC; explore how to achieve process improvements that last; and offer insights into the relationships among process areas.

Part Two describes generic goals and practices, and then details the complete set of twenty-four CMMI-SVC process areas, including specific goals, specific practices, and examples. The process areas are organized alphabetically by acronym and are tabbed for easy reference.

Part Three contains several useful resources, including CMMI-SVC-related references, acronym definitions, a glossary of terms, and an index.

Whether you are new to CMMI models or are already familiar with one or more of them, this book is an essential resource for service providers interested in learning about or implementing process improvement.

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Online Sample Chapter

Introduction to CMMI for Services: Guidelines for Superior Service, 2nd Edition

Table of Contents

Preface xiii

Do You Need CMMI? 3

How Does CMMI Help You to Solve These Problems? 5

How Can CMMI Benefit You? 7

Evolution of CMMI 8

CMMI Framework 10

CMMI for Services 10

Important CMMI-SVC Concepts 11

Core Process Areas and CMMI Models 21

Required, Expected, and Informative Components 21

Components Associated with Part Two 22

Supporting Informative Components 27

Numbering Scheme 29

Typographical Conventions 29

Important Roles in Process Improvement 33

SCAMPI Appraisals 36

CMMI Training 37

An Approach to Getting Started 38

How to Get There 46

Overview 51

Lasting Improvement 51

Understanding Generic Practices 51

Understanding Capability Levels 52

Using Capability Levels 53

Understanding Maturity Levels 55

Using Maturity Levels 57

Using Capability Levels and Maturity Levels 57

Equivalent Staging 59

Achieving High Maturity 63

Relationships that Drive Service Establishment and Delivery 66

Relationships that Drive Service Management 69

Lifecycles 71

A Changing Landscape 79

Expanding Capabilities across the “Constellations” 86

CMMI for Services, with a Dash of CMMI for Development 89

Enhancing Advanced Use of CMMI-DEV with CMMI-SVC Process Areas for SoS 94

Multiple Paths to Service Maturity 97

Using CMMI-DEV and ISO 20000 Assets in Adopting CMMI-SVC 102

Experience-Based Expectations for CMMI-SVC 111

An IT Services Scenario Applying CMMI for Services: The Story of How HeRus Improved Its IT Services 116

Are Services Agile? 129

What We Can Learn from High-Performing IT Organizations to Stop the Madness in IT Outsourcing 135

Public Education in an Age of Accountability 143

Applying CMMI-SVC for Educational Institutions 148

Plans Are Worthless 159

CMMI Ensures Vehicle Insurance Services 164

Security and CMMI for Services 173

Generic Goals and Generic Practices 189

Capacity and Availabili ty Management 261

Causal Analysis and Resolution 281

Configuration Management 291

Decision Analysis and Resolution 305

Incident Resolution and Prevention 315

Integrated Work Management 335

Measurement and Analysis 357

Organizational Process Definition 375

Organizational Process Focus 389

Organizational Performance Management 405

Organizational Process Performance 425

Organizational Training 441

Process and Product Quality Assurance 453

Quantitative Work Management 461

Requirements Management 483

Risk Management 493

Supplier Agreement Management 509

Service Continuity 523

Service Delivery 539

Service System Development 561

Service System Transition 595

Strategic Service Management 609

Work Monitoring and Control 621

Work Planning 633

Appendix A:     References 663

Appendix B: Acronyms 669

Appendix C: CMMI Version 1.3 Project Participants 673

Appendix D: Glossary 681

Sample Pages

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