Whenever the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) rolls out a new quality
standard, it is most likely that an Indian company achieves it first. In keeping
with this trend, Chennai based Polaris Software Lab has become the first company
in the world to be assessed at Level 5 of the Capability Maturity Model
Integrated (CMMI). This model is the latest quality standard released by SEI in
December 2000. As the name suggests, CMMI functions in an integrated fashion
unlike its predecessor- software CMM. What differentiates software CMM from CMMI
is that the former looks at the activities and processes in isolation and CMMI
lays stress on quantitative and statistical methods.
Says Arun Jain, CMD, Polaris Software Lab, "CMMI certification is the
result of the combination of our strategies like organizational redesign, world
class infrastructure, progressive management, business processes and global
reach falling in place. With the current downturn in the software services
industry, outsourcing is becoming a competitive advantage for many companies.
Given this trend, we gain a rightful edge of being the world’s first CMMI
level 5 company."
The certification assumes significance for Polaris, as it comes at a time
when software development companies are feeling the pinch due to the decline in
IT spending. Retaining clients has become a challenge. Says Arun Jain,
"Today, clients conduct elaborate studies before entrusting their IT
activity to a particular company. They check on the service providers
credentials based on the quality standards they have in terms of HR, business
processes, delivery etc. The CMMI certification thus becomes an ideal platform
in positioning ourselves as a software company of repute in the global
arena."
Early adopter’s edge
Value-adds from CMMI |
The branding and value
|
Why is CMMI critical to IT companies? The holistic approach of this process
ensures that the maturity level of the company is defined across the board. For
instance, the CMMI Level 5 certification will usher in clear benefits for
overall process improvement at Polaris. CMMI enables decreased defect levels,
increased productivity and a sustained value addition for the clients. Says
Govind Singhal, executive director, Polaris, "The benefits to clients will
be evident in the long term and will provide us with a sustainable competitive
advantage."
Analysts predict that there will be a rush for CMMI certification down the
line as SEI intends to phase out software CMM in two years and will not provide
any updates henceforth. That leaves little choice for software companies but to
migrate to CMMI. SEI classifies the migration pattern under two heads. Companies
looking at gaining a competitive advantage will immediately realign their
processes towards CMMI. These are companies with proven quality processes in
place and hence migration to CMMI becomes a logical necessity with benefits
exceeding the costs. SEI believes that these early adopters will drive the
quality standard and accumulate benefits such as continued maturation,
reliability and performance. The second wave of migration will be from companies
with the "show me first" attitude. After seeing the benefits derived
by the CMMI early adopters, they will initiate quality audits for CMMI. SEI is
confident that migration in large numbers will happen by 2002.
With this benchmark in place, Polaris intends to close the year with a
turnover of Rs 300 crore. For the half-year ended September 2001, revenues stood
at Rs 143 crore.
What’s special about CMMI?
The CMMI model provides guidance for improving an organization’s processes
and abilities to manage the development, maintenance and acquisition of software
and systems in an integrated manner. CMMI is the latest in the series of models
developed under the stewardship of the Software Engineering Institute (SEI), a
federally funded research and development center sponsored by the US Department
of Defense and operated by Carnegie Mellon University. The model defines how to
make an organisation mature. The maturity is addressed at each level, and each
level provides a capability. The CMMI model scores over the SW-CMM model with a
larger number of process areas, goals and practices. This helps companies in
enhancing organisation process and measurement repository.
Process |
|
Level 1: | Organizations frequently produce products that work; but often greatly exceed the budget and schedule of the project. |
Level 2: |
Organizations have planned processes, documented, performed, monitored and controlled at the project level. |
Level 3: |
Organizations use a defined set of standard processes, which form the basis for establishing consistent processes across the organisation. |
Level 4: |
Processes are predicted and controlled using statistical and other quantitative techniques. Product quality and process performance are understood in statistical terms and are managed throughout the project life cycle to achieve defined quantitative objectives established for the project. |
Level 5: |
Organizations focus on continually improving the process performance through both the incremental and innovative technological improvements. Quantitative process improvement objectives for the organisation are established, continually revised to reflect changing business objectives and used as a criteria in managing process improvement. This means that the processes are concerned with addressing the common causes of process variation and changing process to improve performance. |
The CMMI model is designed to describe discrete levels of process
improvements that can be initiated and sustained in a software organisation. The
maturity levels provide a recommended order for approaching process improvements
in stages so that not all process areas are addressed at the same time. The
maturity level of an organisation provides a way to predict the future
performance of an organisation within a given discipline. Achieving each
maturity level results in an increase in the process capability of the
organisation. Each maturity level forms a foundation for the ongoing process
improvement and they are numbered one to five viz. Initial, Managed, Defined,
Quantitatively Managed, and Optimizing.
G Shrikanth in Chennai Inputs from
Shubhendu Parth in New Delhi