CMMI-ACQ Guidelines for Improving the Acquisition of Products and Services

by Gallagher, Brian; Phillips, Mike; Richter, Karen; Shrum, Sandra

• ISBN13: 9780321580351
• ISBN10: 0321580354
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-12-24
• Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional

Summary

The only official, SEI-approved guide to CMMI-ACQ, the breakthrough methodology for optimizing product and service acquisition  Start-to-finish guidance for succeeding with CMMI-ACQ, including never-beforepublished tips, hints, and case studies, plus the entire CMMI-ACQ model extension.  Will be used by the SEI and its partners in all course offerings on CMMI-ACQ  The latest book in the highly-respected SEI Series in Software Engineering: an ideal follow-on to our successful CMMI, Second Edition (Chrissis) Today, 70% of every dollar spent pays for development that was acquired or outsourced from external sources. CMMI-ACQ is designed to help any organization acquire products and services that meet its requirements more effectively, and to do so more efficiently and at lower cost. Many organizations in both government and industry, including the U.S. Department of Defense, are eager to implement CMMI-ACQ, but they need authoritative guidance to do so. Now, for the first time, there's a comprehensive guide to CMMI-ACQ from the organization that created it: the Software Engineering Institute (SEI). CMMI-ACQ illuminates the entire product/service acquisition process, showing how to avoid common problems, manage acquisition more effectively, and communicate with suppliers in language they will understand. Modeled after the popular CMMI, Second Edition (Chrissis), this equally authoritative book presents the complete CMMI-ACQ along with all the insights, tips, and case studies needed to use it effectively. Coverage includes; process areas and relationships among them; capability and maturity levels; and customizing CMMI-ACQ to the specific needs of any organization. This book is expected to be used to complement SEI's official courses on CMMI-ACQ, as well as those offered by third-party partners and internal implementers within business and government organizations.

Author Biography

Brian P. Gallagher is director of ISR Mission Systems Engineering within the ISR Systems Division, Mission Systems Sector, Northrop Grumman. He was previously director of the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) Acquisition Program.

 

Mike Phillips is program manager for CMMI at the SEI. In that position he leads the CMMI Product Suite evolution for the SEI. He was a senior acquisition professional in the military before joining the SEI.

 

Dr. Karen J. Richter is a research analyst and senior project leader at the Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA), a research and development “think tank” for the Department of Defense. She has served on the CMMI Configuration Control Board and the CMMI Steering Group.

 

Sandy Shrum is a senior writer/editor at the SEI. She has been with the SEI since 1995 and has been a member of the CMMI Development Team since the CMMI project’s inception in 1998.

Table of Contents

Foreword: A Commercial Perspective	p. xi
Foreword: A Government Perspective	p. xv
Preface	p. xvii
Acknowledgments	p. xxv?
About CMMI for Acquisition	p. 1
Introduction	p. 3
About Capability Maturity Models	p. 5
Evolution of CMMI	p. 7
CMMI Framework Architecture	p. 8
CMMI for Acquisition	p. 9
Process Area Components	p. 11
Required, Expected, and Informative Components	p. 11
Components Associated with Part Two	p. 13
Supporting Informative Components	p. 17
Numbering Scheme	p. 19
Typographical Conventions	p. 19
Tying
It All Together	p. 23
Understanding Levels	p. 23
Structures of the Continuous and Staged Representations	p. 25
Understanding Capability Levels	p. 27
Understanding Maturity Levels	p. 30
Process Areas	p. 35
Equivalent Staging	p. 38
Relationships among Process Areas	p. 43
Project Processes	p. 44
Organizational Processes	p. 49
Support Processes	p. 50
High Maturity Processes	p. 52
Using CMMI Models	p. 55
Adopting CMMI	p. 55
Your Process Improvement Program	p. 56
Selections That Influence Your Program	p. 56
CMMI Models	p. 57
Using CMMI Appraisals	p. 58
Appraisal Requirements for CMMI	p. 58
SCAMPI Appraisal Methods	p. 59
Appraisal Considerations	p. 59
CMMI-Related Training	p. 61
Using CMMI-ACQ in Government	p. 63
Critical Issues in Government Acquisition	p. 63
Acquisition Strategy: Planning for Success	p. 70
Agreements: They Are Not Just with Suppliers	p. 75
Acquisition Verification: The Challenges	p. 77
Interoperable Acquisition	p. 81
Transition to Operations: Delivering Value	p. 84
CMMI: The Heart of the U.S. Air Force's Systems Engineering Assessment Model	p. 86
Acquisition Improvement: Identifying and Removing Process Constraints	p. 90
Using CMMI-ACQ in Industry: General Motors Case Study	p. 97
Executive Summary	p. 97
Overview of General Motors	p. 100
Overview of GM Information Systems & Services (IS&S)	p. 101
IS&S Factory Structure	p. 104
System Delivery Factory: An Acquisition Organization	p. 105
Governance of the System Development Factory	p. 107
Aligning the GM System Delivery Process to CMMI-ACQ	p. 108
Realizing Value from the CMMI-ACQ at GM	p. 113
GM to CMMI-ACQ Practice Mapping	p. 129
Managing Process Deployment and Change	p. 129
Integrated Tools E
Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.

Excerpts

A growing trend in business and government alike is one that has organizations purchasing, outsourcing, and acquiring products and services to deliver or assemble and deliver to their customers. Instead of focusing on the development of products and services, organizations are focusing on acquiring the best products and services developed by other organizations.Because of this new emphasis in organizations, there is a lack of experience to draw on in the organization or even to hire that makes it difficult to be successful in this acquisition environment. The factors to consider are different.The CMMI Product Team and its sponsors acknowledge this trend and have created the CMMI for Acquisition (CMMI-ACQ) model to help these organizations by codifying best practices. These best practices apply to processes critical to the successful acquisition of products and services and cover the important processes involved in an acquisition environment. What Is CMMI?CMMI (Capability Maturity Model Integration) is the name given to the collection of models that comprise best practices designed to help organizations improve the performance of their processes and the training and appraisals that support these models. A CMMI model documents activities important to different aspects of the processes needed to deliver products and services to a customer. The CMMI model contained in this book, CMMI-ACQ, is a model designed specifically for organizations that acquire products and services, including large complex systems.The first CMMI model was developed by a product team from industry, government, and the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) for the application of process improvement in the development of products and services. What Is CMMI for Acquisition?The CMMI-ACQ model was developed in a slightly different way. The first step was taken by General Motors, in collaboration with the SEI and with approval of the CMMI Sponsors and Steering Group. An author team in its Information Technology department developed the initial draft of the Acquisition model as the special report,Adapting CMMI for Acquisition Organizations: A Preliminary Report. This report was released by the SEI on its website. The CMMI Product Team sought input about this report from organizations that acquire products and services as a major part of the business processes. Organizations were also recruited to pilot this report to see how well it helped those who used it.In the meantime, the CMMI Product Team formed a model development team that would use the report as a basis to form a CMMI model. Gathering input from those who piloted and reviewed the preliminary report, the CMMI-ACQ development team began work on just that. This team consisted of members from government, industry, and the SEI to ensure a wide variety of perspectives, just as other CMMI model development teams had in the past. This team subsequently created CMMI for Acquisition, Version 1.2 (CMMI-ACQ, V1.2). This model was released in November 2007 as a new member of the CMMI Product Suite and is included in this book with elements we've added.We, as book authors, added tips and hints to all of the model's process areas to help you apply the practices in your organization. We've also added a case study from General Motors that describes how CMMI-ACQ has worked in that organization. Further, we've included important information about and for the government's use of CMMI-ACQ and the government's special needs. PurposeThe purpose of this book is to present acquisition best practices by including the full CMMI-ACQ, V1.2 model as well as other information to help you apply these practices in your organization. This other information takes the form of tips, hints, and cross references that supplement the mo