The CMMI is designed to help improve performance by providing businesses with everything they need to consistently develop better products and services. But the CMMI is more than a process model; it’s also a behavioral model. Businesses can use the CMMI to tackle the logistics of improving performance by developing measurable benchmarks, but CMMI can also help create a structure for encouraging productive, efficient behavior throughout the organization.
Evolution of CMMI The CMMI was developed to combine multiple business maturity models into one framework. It was born from the Software CMM model developed between 1987 and 1997. CMMI Version 1.1 was released in 2002, followed by Version 1.2 in 2006, and Version 1.3 in 2010; V1.3 was replaced by V2.0 in March 2018.
In its first iteration as the Software CMM, the model was tailored to software engineering. Following versions of the CMMI became more abstract and generalized, allowing it to be applied to hardware, software, and service development across every industry. With the release of V2.0, the process has been streamlined — the CMMI previously addressed three areas of interest, including product and service development, service establishment, and product and service acquisition, but they have all been merged into one standalone model.
Every iteration of the CMMI aims to be easier for businesses to understand and use than the last, and each model is designed to be more cost-effective and easier to integrate or deploy. It encourages businesses to focus on quality over quantity by establishing benchmarks for vetting vendors and suppliers, identifying and resolving process issues, minimizing risk and building a corporate culture that will support the CMMI model.
CMMI Maturity Levels The CMMI model breaks down organizational maturity into five levels. For businesses that embrace CMMI, the goal is to raise the organization up to Level 5, the “optimizing” maturity level. Once businesses reach this level, they aren’t done with the CMMI. Instead, they focus on maintenance and regular improvements.