Summary

Establish and maintain the plan for performing the process.

Description

The purpose of this generic practice is to determine what is needed to perform the process and to achieve the established objectives, to prepare a plan for performing the process, to prepare a process description, and to get agreement on the plan from relevant stakeholders.

The practical implications of applying a generic practice vary for each process area.

 

For example, the planning described by this generic practice as applied to the Project Monitoring and Control process area can be carried out in full by the processes associated with the Project Planning process area. However, this generic practice, when applied to the Project Planning process area, sets an expectation that the project planning process itself be planned.


Therefore, this generic practice can either reinforce expectations set elsewhere in CMMI or set new expectations that should be addressed.

Refer to the Project Planning (PP) (CMMI-ACQ) process area for more information about establishing and maintaining plans that define project activities.


Establishing a plan includes documenting the plan and a process description. Maintaining the plan includes updating it to reflect corrective actions or changes in requirements or objectives.

 

The plan for performing the process typically includes the following:
  • Process description
  • Standards and requirements for the work products and services of the process
  • Specific objectives for the execution of the process and its results (e.g., quality, time scale, cycle time, use of resources)
  • Dependencies among the activities, work products, and services of the process
  • Resources (e.g., funding, people, tools) needed to perform the process
  • Assignment of responsibility and authority
  • Training needed for performing and supporting the process
  • Work products to be controlled and the level of control to be applied
  • Measurement requirements to provide insight into the execution of the process, its work products, and its services
  • Involvement of relevant stakeholders
  • Activities for monitoring and controlling the process
  • Objective evaluation activities of the process
  • Management review activities for the process and the work products


Subpractices



1. Define and document the plan for performing the process.

This plan can be a stand-alone document, embedded in a more comprehensive document, or distributed among multiple documents. In the case of the plan being distributed among multiple documents, ensure that a coherent picture of who does what is preserved. Documents can be hardcopy or softcopy.



2. Define and document the process description.

The process description, which includes relevant standards and procedures, can be included as part of the plan for performing the process or can be included in the plan by reference.



3. Review the plan with relevant stakeholders and get their agreement.

This review of the plan includes reviewing that the planned process satisfies the applicable policies, plans, requirements, and standards to provide assurance to relevant stakeholders.



4. Revise the plan as necessary.