Analysis of CMMI Specific Practice Dependencies

CMMI contains a collection of Process Areas (PAs), and each PA contains many Specific Practices (SPs). However, the CMMI specification does not provide any explicit recommendation about which individual SPs can or should be implemented before other SPs. In this paper we identify dependencies between CMMI SPs in PAs in maturity level 2, and also between those PAs. We analyzed the text of the CMMI specification to identify every Work Product (WP) produced and used by every SP in maturity level 2. Our analysis was validated by independent researchers and comparison with an existing dependency analysis shown in CMMI training materials. Our results have significance as a reference model of SP and PA dependencies for both SPI researchers and practitioners. For researchers we have provided an explicit representation of SP and PA dependencies that were previously only implicit in the CMMI specification. For practitioners, our results may provide guidance on the order of implementation of SPs and PAs.