Assessing a Level 5 Organization

This article describes the assessment of the Ogden Air Logistics Center (ALC) Software Engineering Division (TIS) that resulted in a Capability Maturity Model (CMM) Level 5 rating. It also discusses the issues in preparing for the assessment and reviewing the processes of TIS from both an internal (Putman) and external (Paulk) assessor’s viewpoint: concerns going into the assessment and how they were resolved, alternate implementations that were discussed by the assessment team and how the Software CMM practices were judged to be satisfied, and controversial issues that sparked discussion in the assessment team and how a consensus was reached on their resolution. Specific issues include separating process and product assurance responsibilities, stability of continually improving processes and the related data, satisfactory evidence of institutionalization, and adequate implementation of Quantitative Process Management. The article concludes with a description of the challenges that TIS overcame and some of its strengths that may be of use to maturing organizations.