Page 214 - SOFTWARE TESTING & QUALITY ASSURANCE

Unit 14: Maturity Model and Quality Standards

advanced practices. It also applies to practices associated with levels of development ranging from
unrepeatable to an established, well-managed process. Typical paths were suggested through various
practices for attaining higher levels of development, and therefore, improve an organization’s
processes. Experienced CMM staff members formed the core team who helped in the implementation.

Conventional modified processes to fit its business model enabled SMV to attain high levels of
efficiency in a comparatively short span of time. Evaluation ability of its managers had greatly
improved, and this brought higher level of visibility in its projects. Most important of all, the average
number of appreciation emails from its clients had increased considerably.
Question

1. How did ABC Technologies’ Maturity model Framework guide them in the organization?
14.4 Summary

• CMM is the widely used and preferred software method of evaluation.
• CMM defines five-level steps for process understanding.
• Key Process Areas (KPA) is a group of associated activities that strives to attain a set of goals when
performed together. It also sets up a process capability at the maturity level.
• ISO 9000 is a written set of standards published by an international standard writing body.
• There are 20 crucial elements in ISO 9000 standard.
• Software engineering standards define how particular software can be developed, or tested and
maintained according to certain specific set of rules.
14.5 Keywords
Audit: An official examination and verification of the organization’s performance.

Business Process: A collection of related, structured activities or tasks that produce a specific service or
product.
Software Engineering Institute (SEI): It is a federally funded research and development center. It
maintains a list of organization assessed for CMM since 2006.

Software Process Assessment: Defines the methodology in which software has to be developed.
Strategy: A plan of action designed to achieve a particular goal.
14.6 Self Assessment

1. State whether the following statements are true or false:
(a) A quality management system is a realistic and sensible method which promotes a
methodical approach.
(b) Software engineering standards define how hardware devices function.
(c) CMM standards are not important to an organization.
(d) A maturity model can be utilized as a model for evaluation.

(e) CMM model is basically linked to the area of software development.
(f) CMMI was brought out in 2002 with the idea of improving the usage of maturity models.
2. Fill in the blanks:
(a) __________________ is the widely used and preferred software method of evaluation.
(b) There are __________________ maturity levels in the CMM.
(c) In the initial level of CMM __________________ are not well structured.

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