Introduction. The services industry is a significant driver for worldwide economic growth

The services industry is a significant driver for worldwide economic growth. Guidance on developing and improving mature service practices is a key contributor to the performance, customer satisfaction, and profitability of the economic community. The CMMI^® for Services (CMMI-SVC) model is designed to begin meeting that need.

CMMI-SVC contains 24 process areas. Of those, 16 are CMMI Model Foundation (CMF) process areas that cover process management, project management, and support process areas. More about the CMF is discussed in Chapter 3.

All CMMI-SVC model practices focus on the activities of the service provider. Seven process areas focus on practices specific to services, addressing capacity availability and management, service continuity, service delivery, incident resolution and prevention, service transition, service system development, and strategic service management.

About Capability Maturity Models

In its research to help organizations to develop and maintain quality products and services, the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) has found several dimensions that an organization can focus on to improve its business. Figure 1.1 illustrates the three critical dimensions that organizations typically focus on: people, procedures and methods, and tools and equipment.

Figure 1.1: The Three Critical Dimensions

But what holds everything together? It is the processes used in your organization. Processes allow you to align the way you do business. They allow you to address scalability and provide a way to incorporate knowledge of how to do things better. Processes allow you to leverage your resources and to examine business trends.

This is not to say that people and technology are not important. We are living in a world where technology is changing by an order of magnitude every ten years. Similarly, people typically work for many companies throughout their careers. We live in a dynamic world. A focus on process provides the infrastructure and stability necessary to deal with an ever-changing world and to maximize the productivity of people and the use of technology to be more competitive.

Manufacturing has long recognized the importance of process effectiveness and efficiency. Today, many organizations in manufacturing and service industries recognize the importance of quality processes. Process helps an organization’s workforce meet business objectives by helping them work smarter, not harder, and with improved consistency. Effective processes also provide a vehicle for introducing and using new technology in a way that best meets the business objectives of the organization.

In the 1930s, Walter Shewhart began work in process improvement with his principles of statistical quality control [Shewhart 1931]. These principles were refined by W. Edwards Deming [Deming 1986], Phillip Crosby [Crosby 1979], and Joseph Juran [Juran 1988]. Watts Humphrey, Ron Radice, and others extended these principles even further and began applying them to software in their work at IBM (International Business Machines) and the SEI [Humphrey 1989]. Humphrey’s book, Managing the Software Process, provides a description of the basic principles and concepts on which many of the Capability Maturity Models^® (CMMs^®) are based.

The SEI has taken the process management premise, “the quality of a system or product is highly influenced by the quality of the process used to develop and maintain it,” and defined CMMs that embody this premise. The belief in this premise is seen worldwide in quality movements, as evidenced by the International Organization for Standardization/International Electrotechnical Commission (ISO/IEC) body of standards.

CMMs focus on improving processes in an organization. They contain the essential elements of effective processes for one or more disciplines and describe an evolutionary improvement path from ad hoc, immature processes to disciplined, mature processes with improved quality and effectiveness.

The SEI created the first CMM designed for software organizations and published it in a book, Capability Maturity Model: Guidelines for Improving the Software Process [SEI 1995].

Today, CMMI is an application of the principles introduced almost a century ago to this never-ending cycle of process improvement. The value of this process improvement approach has been confirmed over time. Organizations have experienced increased productivity and quality, improved cycle time, and more accurate and predictable schedules and budgets [Gibson 2006].

Evolution of CMMI

Figure 1.2 illustrates the models that were integrated into CMMI Version 1.2. Developing a set of integrated models involved more than simply combining existing model materials. Using processes that promote consensus, the CMMI Product Team built a framework that accommodates multiple constellations.

Figure 1.2: The History of CMMs[3]

CMMI Framework Architecture

The CMMI Framework Architecture provides the structure needed to produce CMMI models, training, and appraisal components. To allow the use of multiple models within the CMMI Framework, model components are classified as either common to all CMMI models or applicable to a specific model. The common material is called the CMMI Model Foundation or CMF.

The components of the CMF are required to be a part of every model generated from the framework. Those components are combined with material applicable to an area of interest to produce a model. Some of this material is shared among areas of interest and others are unique to only one area of interest.

A constellation is defined asa collection of components that are used to construct models, training materials, and appraisal materials in an area of interest (e.g., services and development). The Services constellation’s model is called CMMI for Services or CMMI-SVC.

CMMI for Services

CMMI-SVC also draws upon concepts and practices from other service-focused standards and models, including

· Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL)

· ISO/IEC 20000: Information Technology – Service Management

· Control Objects for Information and related Technology (CobiT)

· Information Technology Services Capability Maturity Model^® (ITSCMM)

Familiarity with these and other service-oriented standards and models is not required to comprehend CMMI-SVC, and this constellation is not structured in a way that is intended to conform to any of them. However, knowledge of other standards and models may provide the reader with a richer understanding of CMMI-SVC models and content.

CMMI for Services is a CMMI constellation that covers the activities required to establish, deliver, and manage services. As defined in the CMMI context, a service is simply an intangible, non-storable product. CMMI-SVC has been developed to be compatible with this broad definition, and its goals and practices are therefore potentially relevant to any organization concerned with the delivery of services, including enterprises in sectors such as defense, information technology, health care, finance, and transportation. Early users of CMMI-SVC during its development and piloting report delivering services as varied as training, logistics, maintenance, refugee services, lawn care, book shelving, research, consulting, auditing, independent verification and validation, human resources, financial management, health care, and IT services.

The CMMI-SVC constellation contains practices that cover project management, process management, service establishment, service delivery and support, and supporting processes. All CMMI-SVC models share a great deal of material with CMMI models in other constellations. Therefore, readers familiar with another CMMI constellation will find much of the CMMI-SVC content familiar.

In the context of CMMI-SVC, the term project is interpreted to encompass all of the resources required to satisfy a service agreement with a customer. Thus, the concept of project management in this context is intended to be similar to the concept of service management in other standards and models, although the correspondence may not be exact.

Organizations interested in evaluating and improving their processes to develop systems for delivering services may use a CMMI-DEV model. This approach is especially recommended for organizations that are already using CMMI-DEV, or that must develop and maintain complex systems for delivering services. However, a CMMI-SVC model provides an alternative, more streamlined approach to evaluating and improving the development of service systems that may be more appropriate in certain contexts.