Assessing a Level 5 Organization

May 1999 TIS has been actively engaged in process improvement using the Capability Maturity Model for software (software CMM) since the early 1990s and was assessed at Level 3 in 1995. An assessment was performed in 1998 using the CMM-Based Appraisal for Internal Process Improvement (CBAIPI) method [1]. It resulted in a Level 5 rating for TIS, the highest that can be achieved for the software CMM. The assessment covered all the software development and maintenance activities within the division. The diversity of the software efforts within the division range from well over 100 employees who support a single operational flight program (OFP) update to one-person efforts to support automated test equipment (ATE) test programs. The goals for this assessment were to • Measure software process improvement progress made since the 1995 assessment. • Provide a maturity level rating for TIS. • Provide findings to a level of detail sufficient to enable TIS to refocus the process improvement efforts division-wide and to identify improvement candidates unique to TIS product lines. The purpose of this article is to discuss the issues involved in preparing for the assessment and coming to a team consensus on the TIS processes and how the issues address the key process areas (KPAs) in the software CMM.