CMM certification is it really required?

Question

One of my friend had recently (some 8 months ago) started a new software services company. The guys are totally smart and as initial step they went for ISO certification and achieved it. I'm working in a CMMI L5 company where he also belonged earlier. I asked him. is it really worth going for a CMM certification, considering the fact that you're newbies in the business.

He said

I really don't find worth going for CMM certification in this level and also the cost for implementing and maintaining the certification is huge. The big players like *** (I'm not mentioning name) even now discontinuing it

but some kind of products urge us to go for CMM/Six Sigma certification like avionics and security products.

As a joke another one said like

Its simply the way for standard boards to make money :)

Share your view points? is it really worth going for SEI-CMM certification?

Answer 1

The client's POV:

• The idea of being CMM level-X means that your clients can set their expectation accordingly.

The shop-owner's POV:

• One way to ensure that small startups don't get lost repeating mistakes so many predecessors have made.

• A way of growing better over time.

• A way getting the right clients and then more clients.

You'd get much more detail on the SEI website, if you care.

Mostly though, I see this more prevalent in a software/IT services scenario than in product based companies.

Answer 2

Working in a CMMI level 5 company I would say its just waste of money and time as long as your clients dont understand what you mean by CMMI.

"We are a CMMI Level5 certified" looks very good in papers but its adding more head ache to the developers. You have said that they are bright guys don't make them follow some rules put down by these certifications. ;-)

More documents and less time for innovation. So if your friends have their own products then better dont go for a CMMI certification. The cost is very high. Also for a start up CMMI certification does not matter much. They can think about it when they grow up and have a dedicated QA team (Who can run behind all these).

Answer 3

From my experience a lot of companies using it do so more for marketing purposes than for it actually being useful. IT is somehting they can advertise to seperate them from the competition. IT is like ISO9000 in many aspects in that area. Also some compnaies get it since clients require it in some cases for you to even be a potential vendor.

Processes and certification don't make a compnay better, implemention useful ones and using them properly do. You can have all the process in the world but if it is flawed it isn't much better than none, beyond doing somethign poorly consistently.

Answer 4

It's worth it if you are going for a contract with any type of government agency especially DOD contracts. Nowadays you either have to be CMMI level 3 or have a plan in place and actively working towards level 3 if you want to even bid on DOD contracts.

In my opinion some parts of the CMMI model always make sense like configuration management and requirements management. If you are controlling your code and your requirements then you can usually put out a good product. A lot of the other stuff in the model is a little much at times especially at the higher levels.

One area where a CMMI level 5 assessment would be very applicable would be for applications that involve human life. I don't know about you, but I would prefer to be hooked up to a machine in the hospital that came from a level 5 company as opposed to one that came from a level 2 company.

Answer 5

It's worth reading answers to the question - Does anyone still believe in the CMM for software?