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WORKING WITH A VISION 219

See also: Keep evolving business practice 48–51 ■ Reinventing and adapting 52–57 ■ Simplify processes 296–99 ■
Kaizen 302–09 ■ Critical path analysis 328–29 ■ Benchmarking 330–31

The CMM describes five levels of The strength of CMM is its effective
increasing maturity through which measurement of the standardization
an organization or team manages of an organization’s processes. This
its processes: in the first level, work is why the model moved from being
is conducted in a chaotic and ill- used to assess software development,
defined way; in the second level, to applications in project
processes are put in place and management, risk management,
adhered to with some discipline, personnel management, and systems
and previous successes can be engineering. It provides a starting
repeated; in the third level, processes point for managers looking to improve
are defined, standardized, and can a company’s processes and a
be proactively implemented; in the framework for prioritizing actions.
Adam Smith observed workers making fourth level, they are managed and It also offers a way of defining what
pins in a pin factory and realized that monitored; and in the fifth level, “improvement” might really mean. ■
if the process were split into separate, they undergo regular improvement
specialized steps, productivity would through monitoring and feedback.
increase by 240 to 4,800 times.
Comparing industries
with funding from the US Air The CMM can be used to compare
Force, and was used as a model for different organizations in similar
the military to evaluate software industries. For example, two The whole idea was
subcontractors. The model’s companies could be compared to motivate people to think
original goal was to improve on the basis of their software- about how they’re working,
software-development processes, development processes. Increasingly, and how to improve it.
but it is now applied as a general IT projects, which involve complex Watts S. Humphrey
model of the maturity of processes. software development and new
It is often used in evaluating system implementation, can
IT service management, for impact a company’s operation
example, or more widely across and profitability, as they affect
organizational systems. all of the company’s departments.

Watts S. Humphrey Business. After graduating, companies Adobe, Intuit, and
he joined the Software Oracle. Humphrey was awarded
Software engineer Watts S. Engineering Institute (SEI) at a National Medal of Technology
Humphrey, known as the Carnegie Mellon University, in 2003 for his work in software
“father of software quality,” Pennsylvania, where he founded engineering. With his wife,
was born in 1927 in Michigan, the Software Process Program, Barbara, he had seven children,
US. He credited his father with which focused on understanding and died at his home in Florida
his approach to problem solving. and managing the software on October 28, 2010, at 83.
After high school, where he engineering process. This work
struggled with dyslexia, he resulted in the development of the Key works
joined the US Navy to serve Capability Maturity Model (CMM),
during World War II. for which he is best known, and 1995 A Discipline for Software
Humphrey then studied inspired the subsequent Engineering
for a BSc and MSc in physics development of the Personal 1999 Introduction to the Team
before completing an MBA in Software Process (PSP) and the Software Process
manufacturing at the University Team Software Process (TSP), 2005 PSP, A Self-Improvement
of Chicago Graduate School of which was later adopted by IT Process for Software Engineers