Road Map to CMM Implementation Netsol’s Experience

Muhammad Furqan Khan is an MBA (PU). He is currently working as Manager Quality Engineering with NetSol Technologies (Pvt.) Ltd. He has over ten years of experience in Software Quality Management, Software Process Improvement, Software Development, and Assessments against ISO 9001 & Software CMM®.

ABSTRACT

According to Watts Humphrey “The Actual Process is what you do, with all its omission, mistakes, and oversights. The Official Process is what books say you are supposed to do”. So there are two challenges that a software development firm faces. First, to come up with reliable, efficient and pragmatic Official processes. Second, to make these processes a part of the company’s culture i.e. to make the Official process the same as the Actual Process.
Software CMM (Capability Maturity Model) is developed by SEI, Carnegie Melon University USA. It is software process maturity framework. That helps an organization, identify repeatable processes in the organization in the first place & then gradually, mature them through defining them at organizational level and then managing & optimizing the capability of these processes. Software CMM is emerging as a de-facto standard to judge the expected outcome of a software organization. Most of high maturity rated companies reside in India & USA, and rest of the world is still striving to get to this level of maturity. In the Global IT Market CMM maturity level possessed by the organization is a yard stick to find the best among all. It’s an opportunity for Pakistan to become Quality Conscious IT Country by having several high maturity software organizations, as no other country has done it better than USA & India so far. This will bring Pakistan on the Map of IT Countries.
To benefit from this opportunity, in Pakistan we need to make efforts at national as well as organizational levels. This can be done firstly at government level by providing financial support to organizations as CMM assessment & consultancy is very costly, worldwide. Secondly to enforce SPI initiative in Pakistan IT Market by regulations, thirdly to develop resources, specialist on CMM, SPI (Software Process Improvement), and producing SEI authorized CMM Lead Assessor, to reduce the assessment & consultancy costs. And lastly among the IT organizations, they should share the knowledge & experience both formally & informally to provide national & mutual benefits.
At organizational level, first of all the Top management has to buy in that SPI is inevitable for them, and to survive they have to get their organizations to higher maturity levels. Secondly top management must then initiate SPI activities in the organization, and with careful planning for SPI, they must build proper infrastructure to sustain SPI activities in the organization. And lastly they must prepare their organization to be assessed by SEI authorized CMM Lead Assessor to get to higher maturity. Every company that will enhance its CMM maturity level will not only get the benefit at organizational level but will also contribute at national level.