subject: The Process Areas Of Cmmi Model [print this page] The full CMMI model contains 22 Process Areas, each containing a series of practices designed to accomplish one or more goals. As a general rule, each Process Area can be implemented on its own, independent of the others. Yet as you become familiar with the model, youll find that many of the Process Areas in CMMI are related to each other, add strength to each other, and build upon each other.
You might find it helpful or handy to inter relate Process Areas by grouping them into functional categories. Using or even recognizing this grouping is not mandatory for model success, but you might find its a useful way of organizing things in your head. The grouping is sorted like this: in the model, six Process Areas (PAs) deal with project management, six deal with engineering, five others deal with the support functions of project execution, and five deal with process management within the organization.
Heres how the PAs are organized by functional category.
Project Management:
Project Planning
Project Monitoring and Control
Integrated Project Management
Quantitative Project Management
Risk Management
Supplier Agreement Management
Engineering:
Requirements Management
Requirements Development
Verification
Validation
Technical Solution
Product Integration
Support:
Process and Product Quality Assurance
Configuration Management
Measurement and Analysis
Decision Analysis and Resolution
Causal Analysis and Resolution
Process Management:
Organizational Process Focus
Organizational Process Definition
Organizational Training
Organizational Process Performance
Organizational Innovation and Deployment
Each PA is supported by one or more specific goals, which can be reached using the recommended specific practices. To support the implementation of each PA, CMMI also uses generic goals. The generic goals help institutionalize the activities of a Process Area into a project. There are five generic goals, each with its own generic practices.
Thats a lot of best-practice data. And if you were to look at the CMMI components as a single model, the way that ISO 9001 and Six Sigma are, you might reach the conclusion that theres more than enough there, maybe too much. But CMMI was designed with scalability in mind. In fact, you can implement CMMI within your organization one of three ways. In each way, you select only certain portions of the model to use: portions that best suit your own process improvement needs, portions that address your chief management concerns, portions that get you to your process goals. One way is called the Continuous Representation. Another is called the Staged Representation. The third way in my term is called the any way you want way.
