SPI in a very small team: a case with CMM

Abstract

This paper describes the case study of an application of the Capability Maturity Model (CMM) to a micro team with less than 10 people and very limited resources, clearly placed in the first CMM level of maturity, the Initial level. A major aim of the case, which extended over a period of one year, was to study the extent to which the CMM could be adapted to very small teams for software process improvement (SPI). We have concentrated primarily on those parts of the CMM that involve the achievement of the objectives of key process areas (KPA) in level 2, the Repeatable level. Throughout the year we gathered data from a wide range of management and engineering tasks. The results obtained after one year have shown a clear improvement of the process. The pragmatic application of the CMM has thus shown that SPI can indeed be achieved by a very small team. We also came to the conclusion that the CMM cannot be applied in a straightforward manner by such a small team. We have also concluded that team management is just as important as process management in this kind of environment. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons Ltd