Appendix C. Capability Maturity Models

This appendix is a primer on the Capability Maturity Models (CMMs), their development and use. It is not intended to be complete or exhaustive, but to provide sufficient understanding for reading and using this book.

A Short History of CMMs

The development of the Capability Maturity Model for Software (SW-CMM) formally began in 1986 as a collaboration between the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) of Carnegie-Mellon University and the MITRE Corporation. Based on earlier work at IBM, the goal was to produce a framework for the U.S. federal government to assess the capabilities of its contractors in the area of software development. In 1987, a team led by Watts Humphrey published an initial framework ...

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