SW-CMM, the popular software assessment model, will become obsolete by the end of 2003. Akhtar Pasha examines the prospects of its successor, CMMI (Capability Maturity Model-Integrated)

The Indian market has seen the likes of Infosys, Wipro, Polaris and i-flex shift to the CMMI process model from SW-CMM. During H1 2003, Tier 2 software companies that are using the SW-CMM model will soon migrate to CMMI. Down the line, systems companies involved in hardware and software integration will also explore the benefits of using CMMI.

Krishnan Puthucode says that with CMMI companies can pick out pain areas and implement or get assessed only for those areas and pay accordingly

CMMI market opportunity
Four countries in the world use the CMMI model extensively—US, Japan, India and Australia. Krishnan Puthucode, director at the Software Quality Centre says, “In the US about 20 CMMI assessments have been done by the Department of Defence and software companies. The defence department in Australia is also believed to have done a similar number of CMMI Level 2/3 assessments. Whereas in Japan, electronic manufacturers like NEC, Toshiba, Sharp, Sony and others are using the CMMI model. India has seen nine CMMI assessments so far, mainly by software companies.”

Vijay Sharma, head, consulting at i-flex Solutions says, “About a year back, the market was not sure about the CMMI model. But in the last six months we have seen acceptance of this model. Organisations that are assessed for CMM will now quickly move to CMMI because of peer pressure and to increase their competitiveness.”

India trends
There are two opposite trends noticed in India compared to the rest of the world. One trend seen here in India is that many organisations that have been successful in the adoption of SW-CMM are now migrating to CMMI at a rapid pace. For example Infosys, Wipro, Polaris, i-flex, SSI and others are already using this model. And a large number of Tier 2 companies that have successfully adopted SW-CMM are now planning to migrate to CMMI. Other Indian companies that did not adopt SW-CMM have start considering the adoption of CMMI from scratch. Many of these organisations are finding CMMI to be a better model, even if it’s just for software processes. Organisations are also discovering the broader applicability of this process model for the rest of their departments.

Another trend noticed is that systems development companies are also seriously looking at CMMI. Embedded Systems & Software (EmSyS), a unit of the Electrical & Electronics Division of L&T, has become the first systems company to be assessed for using all the components of CMMI’s Level 5 model. And as CMMI matures, more product and system companies are expected to follow suit during the latter half of 2003.

While it’s true that only software firms are using CMMI at present in India, in other parts of the world CMMI is being adopted by companies that develop full system solutions that include hardware and software engineering activities.

Market drivers
SW-CMM Sunset: Many companies have recognised that SW-CMM has a limited life and that it is better to migrate to CMMI sooner rather than later. The SEI will commence the sunset of SW-CMM at the end of 2003, and will no longer fully support SW-CMM assessments beyond 2005. Sharma adds, “The federal government in the US (Department of Defence) that owns the CMMI model will stop funding its predecessor. There will be no fresh recruitment of CMM lead assessors, research in CMM will come to an end, and no upgrades for the CMM model will be available.”

More Intelligent Customer Base: Many software companies are finding their customers to be far more informed in relation to maturity models. “Some companies are already finding their customers asking for CMMI level rather than SW-CMM level. Customers have also started asking how recent the company’s appraisal is and are ignoring appraisals that are more than 18-24 months old,” says Mick Spiers, senior consultant for QAI in India. Raghunathan Kuppuswamy, vice president for technology and quality at Blue Star adds, “We have been assessed for CMMI Level 4 in Mumbai and CMMI Level 5 in Bangalore. We were looking for process orientation, Level 5 KPA (Key Process Area) like technology management and management of innovation, that were not available in SW-CMM. In addition to this, we wanted to improve our internal processes so that we can take our customers on a guided tour to increase their faith in us.”

CMMI well defined: CMMI covers the same material as SW-CMM, although some topics are treated more extensively, which is a reflection of the engineering community’s knowledge acquired over the past 10 years. Coverage for elements like Risk Management and Measurement and Analysis, for example, is crisper and more definitive than in SW-CMM. Besides, CMMI is built on the experience gained from SW-CMM and other models, and hence addresses the shortfalls of those models.

Competitive business imperative: This trend is more prevalent in India compared to the rest of the world. Software companies are moving to the CMMI model because of peer pressure and to retain their competitiveness.

Vijay Sharma says organisations that are assessed for CMM will now move to CMMI quickly because of peer pressure and to increase competitiveness

Advantages of using CMMI model
According to Puthucode, companies can now pick out ‘pain areas’ and implement or get assessed only for those areas—improve and pay accordingly. This option was not available in the SW-CMM model. Secondly, SW-CMM assessment was suited only for software companies, whereas CMMI offers a complete integrated model for software, systems engineering (SE), supplier sourcing (SS) and integrated product and process development (IPPD). Thus, it is suited for both software and product companies.

Cost of implementation: The cost of implementing CMMI is not significantly greater than SW-CMM, but the benefits outweigh the costs. The costs of transitioning from SW-CMM is also not very significant, particularly for organisations that were successful SW-CMM implementers. The assessment could range anywhere from Rs 10 to Rs 15 lakh. But consulting, training and administrative charges would be additional.

Emphasis on requirements engineering and validation: There are numerous changes in CMMI over SW-CMM. Some of the more significant changes are in the engineering process areas (EPA). The engineering category in CMMI has several new process areas including requirements development, technical solution, product integration and validation.

The benefits of EPA are well quantified in L&T’s case—after the CMMI assessment the company has been able reduce its defect rate to 0.7 defects per 1,000 lines of code as against 6 defects per 1,000 lines of code before the CMMI assessment. L&T has now been able to catch 70 percent of defects during the product inspection stage and another 30 percent during testing process, thereby reducing the product design cycle by half.

Which methodology to choose for CMMI assessment?
There are two methods to get CMMI assessed—staged and continuous. If you are a software company the logical way will be to go opt for the staged method. It offers a roadmap to approach process improvement one step at a time. The staged representation prescribes the order for each process area according to maturity levels. Achieving each “level” ensures that an adequate improvement foundation has been laid for the next level, minimising the organisation’s process improvement investment while maximising the benefits to the organisation.

The continuous method offers a flexible approach to process improvement. This is where system companies and product engineering companies will make use of CMMI model to the maximum. It is designed for organisations that would like to choose a particular process area or set of processes to improve trouble spots in the organisation or processes. The continuous method also allows an organisation to improve different processes at different rates, thereby reducing investment in assessments.

Strategies for CMMI solution providers
QAI, i-flex and SQC are the vendors offering CMMI assessment in India and each one has its own strategy for this market. For example, QAI in India will initially be focusing on software companies with a move to tap systems companies in the future. Spiers of QAI says, “This initial emphasis in India comes from the fact that so many Indian software companies have achieved outstanding success and return on investment from SW-CMM-based process improvements, and these companies are now keen to adopt the new model.” QAI has appointed four SEI authorised CMMI lead appraisers for India, which is the company’s largest team outside the US.

i-flex’s strategy during the first half of 2003, will be to help companies that are already assessed for CMM to migrate to the CMMI model. In the later half of the year, the company will focus only on new accounts—first time users of CMMI. It has three CMM lead assessor for the older CMM model and another two for the CMMI model. Sharma says, “We would be expanding our team of lead assessors for CMMI shortly and would like to do one CMMI assessment per month.” i-flex has a 13 member process consulting team that offers process and quality consulting for CMM and CMMI. The company has had a strong focus on quality management since 1995.

SQC India has a different approach and business strategy. The company will be focusing on systems and product companies. It will be focusing on its second CMMI project for Silver Software, which is likely to be finalised soon. Silver Software is an UK-based company with a development centre in Bangalore and is involved in avionics and railway signalling system. The company is also talking to WeP, BPL Software energy systems, GE Medical systems and shipping companies for CMMI assessments. In addition to this, SQC will also help companies to migrate from CMM to CMMI Level 5 model. Puthucode says, “SQC’s strategy will be to showcase L&T as a reference model to make inroads in product companies.”

It will be imperative for software companies to migrate from CMM to CMMI. As awareness increases systems companies will come forward for CMMI assessments on their own, and they will benefit more from this model.

SW-CMM (V 1.1) v/s CMMI (V 1.02)