Hybriding CMMI and Requirement Engineering Maturity & Capability Models - Applying the LEGO Approach for Improving Estimates

Estimation represents one of the most critical processes for any project and it is highly dependent on the quality of requirements elicitation and management. Therefore, the management of requirements should be prioritised in any process improvement program, because the less precise the requirements gathering, analysis and sizing, the greater the error in terms of time and cost estimation. Maturity and Capability Models (MCM) represent a good tool for assessing the status of a set of processes, but an inner limit of any model is its scope and approach for describing a certain issue. Thus, integrating two or more models with a common area of focus can offer more information and value for an organization, keeping the best components from each model. LEGO (Living EnGineering prOcess) is an approach projected for this purpose. This paper proposes a LEGO application hybridizing a ‘horizontal’ model (a MM containing processes going through the complete supply chain, from requirements right through to delivery, e.g. CMMI or ISO 12207/15504) with a few specific ‘vertical’ models (MMs with focus on a single perspective or process category, e.g. TMMi or TPI in the Test Management domain, P3M3 and OPM3 in the Project Management domain) for Requirement Engineering.