M01 - Introduction and CMMI Flashcards
SPI stands for?
Software Process Improvement
SPI implies?
- Elements of an effective software process can be defined
- An existing organizational approach to software dev. can be assessed against those elements
- A meaningful strategy for improvement can be defined
What does the SPI strategy do?
Transforms existing approach to soft dev. -> something: more focused, more reliable and more repeatable-
What is the underlying premise of process improvement?
“The quality of a product is largely determined by the quality of the process that is used to develop and maintain it.”
What does the SPI Framework contain?
- Set of characteristics (must be present if effective PI is to be achieved)
- Method of assessing if the characteristics are present
- Mechanism of summarizing the results of assessment
- Strategy for assisting a soft. org. in implementation of the (found to be) weak/missing process characteristics
What does the SPI framework do?
Assesses the “maturity” of an organization’s SP
Provides a qualitative indication of a maturity level
Where is a maturity model applied?
Within the context of an SPI framework
What is the intent of a maturity model?
Provide overall indication of the “process maturity” exhibited by a soft. org.
What does a maturity model indicate?
- Quality of the SP
- Degree to which practitioners understand and apply the process
- General state of the soft. eng. practice.
Example of a SPI framework?
CMMI
What does CMMI stand for?
Capability Maturity Model
What is CMMI?
Comprehensive process meta-model
Based on a set of soft. eng. Capabilities that should be present as orgs reach different levels of process capabilities and maturity.
What are the dif representations in the CMMI models?
Two:
Staged
Continuous
What does a representation allow an organization to do?
Pursue different improvement objectives
What applies to the presentation of data and the content?
The organization and presentation of data is different but the content is the same.
What is a maturity level and how many are there?
A well defined evolutionary plateau of process improvement
5 maturity levels
What do maturity levels permit?
Comparison across and among organizations
What is each level a layer in?
Foundation for continuous process improvement using a proven sequence of improvements, beginning with basic management practices and progressing through a predefined and proven path of successive levels-
How does the Staged representation look?
Like a stair case with 5 levels, the highest being 5 and lowest 1
What are the titles of the levels - from L1 to L5?
Initial, managed, defined, quantitatively managed, optimized
What is level 1?
Lowest. Processes are unpredictable, poorly controlled, reactive.
Level 2?
Processes are planned, documented, performed, monitored and controlled at the project level. Often reactive.
Level 3?
Processes are well characterized and understood.
Processes, standards, procedures, tools, etc. defined at the organizational level. Proactive.
Level 4?
Processes are controlled using statistical and other quantitative techniques.
Level 5?
Process performance continually improved through incremental and innovative technological improvements.
Should and can maturity levels be skipped? Why, why not?
No, they shouldn’t. Each maturity level provides a necessary foundation for effective implementation of processes at the next level.
How does the Continuous representation look?
Like a bar graph. On the x-axis there’s the Process Areas and for each area a bar. On the y-axis there’s the capability from 0 to 5.
What does a Continuous representation indicate?
Improvement within a single Process Area (PA)
What does it allow it to do?
- select the order of improvement that best meets your organization’s business objectives
- reduces your organization’s areas of risk
- enables comparisons across and among organizations on a process-area-by-process-area basis
