Introduction To Software Standards

Capability Maturity Model - Developed by the software community in 1986 with leadership from the SEI. The CMM describes the principles and practices underlying software process maturity. It is intended to help software organizations improve the maturity of their software processes in terms of an evolutionary path from ad hoc, chaotic processes to mature, disciplined software processes. The focus is on identifying key process areas and the exemplary practices that may comprise a disciplined software process.

What makes up the CMM? The CMM is organized into five maturity levels:

· Initial

· Repeatable

· Defined

· Manageable

· Optimizing

Except for Level 1, each maturity level decomposes into several key process areas that indicate the areas an organization should focus on to improve its software process.

Level 1 - Initial Level: Disciplined process, Standard, Consistent process, Predictable process, Continuously Improving process

Level 2 – Repeatable: Key practice areas - Requirements management, Software project planning, Software project tracking & oversight, Software subcontract management, Software quality assurance, Software configuration management

Level 3 – Defined: Key practice areas - Organization process focus, Organization process definition, Training program, Integrated software management, Software product engineering, Intergroup coordination, Peer reviews

Level 4 – Manageable: Key practice areas - Quantitative Process Management, Software Quality Management

Level 5 – Optimizing: Key practice areas - Defect prevention, Technology change management, Process change management

Six Sigma

Six Sigma is a quality management program to achieve "six sigma" levels of quality. It was pioneered by Motorola in the mid-1980s and has spread to many other manufacturing companies, notably General Electric Corporation (GE).

Six Sigma is a rigorous and disciplined methodology that uses data and statistical analysis to measure and improve a company's operational performance by identifying and eliminating "defects" from manufacturing to transactional and from product to service. Commonly defined as 3.4 defects per million opportunities, Six Sigma can be defined and understood at three distinct levels: metric, methodology and philosophy...

Training Sigma processes are executed by Six Sigma Green Belts and Six Sigma Black Belts, and are overseen by Six Sigma Master Black Belts.

ISO

ISO - International Organization for Standardization is a network of the national standards institutes of 150 countries, on the basis of one member per country, with a Central Secretariat in Geneva, Switzerland, that coordinates the system. ISO is a non-governmental organization. ISO has developed over 13, 000 International Standards on a variety of subjects.