CMMI-DEV, Ver. 1.3

A new version of CMMI for Development, CMMI-DEV has been released. This release which carries version no. 1.3 improves upon the previous release, version 1.2. It removes some of the inconsistencies reported by the CMMI practitioners community and also incorporates some of the suggestions that have been received. Some of the key improvement areas the next version of CMMI (or the future versions if not the next) should consider: Explicitly Acknowledge and Declare the Usefulness of Six Sigma at Maturity Level 4 and 5 Six Sigma is a powerful weapon during an organization's CMMI High Maturity journey. Six Sigma provides the approach and the Statistical Tools and Techniques which enable and complement the CMMI Process Areas at maturity level 4 and 5. Include Process Areas that Go Beyond the Techo-managerial Activities Performed by an Organization Any successful organization needs Process Areas beyond the techno-managerial areas addressed by the current PA categories - Process Management, Project Management, Engineering and Support. CMMI should have at least one Process Area that links the benefits of using the above four PA categories to direct business value (increased revenue and / or reduced operating expenses). This will transform CMMI to a true business excellence model. Any business excellence model worth its salt must be able to provide clear connection of its set of requirements and recommended practices to the eventual business value-add and not just abstract business benefits such as improved productivity, reduced rework, better on-time performance, etc. This is essentially about graduating to become a Business Maturity Model rather than remaining as a mere process maturity framework. Adopt a Score-based System for Publishing CMMI Appraisal Results in addition to the Current Level-based System It is obvious that any two organizations at the same maturity level "N" are not at par in terms of their actual process maturity. Also, when an organization moves up from maturity level "N" to maturity level "N+1", the exact quantum of difference would vary from one organization to the other. The MBNQA framework is an excellent score-based system that can be looked at to evaluate this aspect.