Interpreting Capability Maturity Mode Integration (CMMI) for COTS-Based Systems

Experience shows that engineering commercial off-the-shelf (COTS)-based systems requires fundamental changes from traditional engineering: adjusted roles and responsibilities, new skills, and different processes. Practitioners are often surprised to find that building and supporting COTS-based systems demands more, not less, discipline in their management and engineering practices.

Many organizations have derived benefit from process improvement using capability maturity models and want to apply them as they build COTS-based systems. In addition, organizations building COTS-based systems want to apply the Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMM). This leads to the question, "How should CMMI be interpreted for organizations building, fielding, and supporting a COTS-based system?"

This report shows that developing and maintaining COTS-based systems is more than selecting products and managing vendor relationships and is, therefore, more than just applying the Supplier Sourcing discipline within CMMI. The four CMMI disciplines—Systems Engineering, Software Engineering, Integrated Product and Process Development, and Supplier Sourcing—require interpretation and must be used together to promote improvement of an organization's processes for developing and maintaining COTS-based systems. This report summarizes what makes COTS-based systems unique and provides high-level guidance for interpreting and using CMMI practices to facilitate appropriate processes for COTS-based systems.

PDF [570 KB]

Authors

Barbara Tyson

Christopher J. Alberts (CERT)

Lisa Brownsword

This report is related to the following area(s) of work:

Process Improvement
CMMI

Technical Report
CMU/SEI-2003-TR-022
September 2003

Cite This Report

SEI:

Tyson, Barbara; Alberts, Christopher; & Brownsword, Lisa. Interpreting Capability Maturity Mode Integration (CMMI) for COTS-Based Systems (CMU/SEI-2003-TR-022). Software Engineering Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, 2003. http://www.sei.cmu.edu/library/abstracts/reports/03tr022.cfm

IEEE:

B. Tyson, C. Alberts, and L. Brownsword, "Interpreting Capability Maturity Mode Integration (CMMI) for COTS-Based Systems," Software Engineering Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Technical Report CMU/SEI-2003-TR-022, 2003. http://www.sei.cmu.edu/library/abstracts/reports/03tr022.cfm

APA:

Tyson, B., Alberts, C., & Brownsword, L. (2003). Interpreting Capability Maturity Mode Integration (CMMI) for COTS-Based Systems (CMU/SEI-2003-TR-022). Retrieved May 19, 2013, from the Software Engineering Institute, Carnegie Mellon University website: http://www.sei.cmu.edu/library/abstracts/reports/03tr022.cfm

CHI:

Tyson, Barbara, Christopher Alberts, and Lisa Brownsword. Interpreting Capability Maturity Mode Integration (CMMI) for COTS-Based Systems (CMU/SEI-2003-TR-022). Pittsburgh, PA: Software Engineering Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, 2003. http://www.sei.cmu.edu/library/abstracts/reports/03tr022.cfm

MLA:

Tyson, B., Alberts, C., & Brownsword, L. 2003. Interpreting Capability Maturity Mode Integration (CMMI) for COTS-Based Systems (Technical Report CMU/SEI-2003-TR-022). Pittsburgh: Software Engineering Institute, Carnegie Mellon University. http://www.sei.cmu.edu/library/abstracts/reports/03tr022.cfm

Please note that current and future CMMI research, training, and information has been transitioned to the CMMI Institute, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Carnegie Mellon University.

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