Process Management (CMMI-ACQ)

The Process Management process areas of CMMI are as follows:

• Organizational Process Definition (OPD) (CMMI-ACQ)
• Organizational Process Focus (OPF) (CMMI-ACQ)
• Organizational Performance Management (OPM) (CMMI-ACQ)
• Organizational Process Performance (OPP) (CMMI-ACQ)
• Organizational Training (OT) (CMMI-ACQ)

Basic Process Management Process Areas

The Basic Process Management process areas provide the organization with a capability to document and share best practices, organizational process assets, and learning across the organization.

Figure 4.1 provides a bird’s-eye view of the interactions among the Basic Process Management process areas and with other process area categories. As illustrated in Figure 4.1, the Organizational Process Focus process area helps the organization to plan, implement, and deploy organizational process improvements based on an understanding of the current strengths and weaknesses of the organization’s processes and process assets.

Figure 4.1 Basic Process Management Process Areas

Candidate improvements to the organization’s processes are obtained through various sources. These activities include process improvement proposals, measurement of the processes, lessons learned in implementing the processes, and results of process appraisal and product evaluation activities.

The Organizational Process Definition process area establishes and maintains the organization’s set of standard processes, work environment standards, and other assets based on the process needs and objectives of the organization. These other assets include descriptions of lifecycle models, process tailoring guidelines, and process related documentation and data.

Projects tailor the organization’s set of standard processes to create their defined processes. The other assets support tailoring as well as implementation of the defined processes. Experiences and work products from performing these defined processes, including measurement data, process descriptions, process artifacts, and lessons learned, are incorporated as appropriate into the organization’s set of standard processes and other assets.

The Organizational Training process area identifies the strategic training needs of the organization as well as the tactical training needs that are common across projects and support groups. In particular, training is developed or obtained to develop the skills required to perform the organization’s set of standard processes. The main components of training include a managed training development program, documented plans, staff with appropriate knowledge, and mechanisms for measuring the effectiveness of the training program.

Advanced Process Management Process Areas

The Advanced Process Management process areas provide the organization with an improved capability to achieve its quantitative objectives for quality and process performance.

Figure 4.2 provides a bird’s-eye view of the interactions among the Advanced Process Management process areas and with other process area categories. Each of the Advanced Process Management process areas depends on the ability to develop and deploy processes and supporting assets. The Basic Process Management process areas provide this ability.

Figure 4.2 Advanced Process Management Process Areas

The organization provides projects and support groups with common measures, process performance baselines, and process performance models. These additional organizational assets support composing a defined process that can achieve the project’s quality and process performance objectives and support quantitative management. The organization analyzes the process performance data collected from these defined processes to develop a quantitative understanding of product quality, service quality, and process performance of the organization’s set of standard processes.