People Capability Maturity Model

physical configuration audit

The review of work products performed by peers during the development of work products to identify defects for removal. (See also “work product.”)
The term “peer review” is used in the CMMI Product Suite instead of the term “work product inspection.”

The measures of effectiveness and other key measures used to guide and control progressive development.

A process that accomplishes the needed work to produce work products; the specific goals of the process area are satisfied.

Program Evaluation and Review Technique

Product Integration (process area)

A process that is documented by both a description and a plan.
The description and plan should be coordinated and the plan should include standards, requirements, objectives, resources, and assignments.

Project Monitoring and Control (process area)

(See “organizational policy.”)

Project Planning (process area)

Process and Product Quality Assurance (process area)

A set of interrelated activities, which transform inputs into outputs, to achieve a given purpose. (See also “process area,” “subprocess,” and “process element.”)
There is a special use of the phrase “the process” in the statements and descriptions of the generic goals and generic practices. “The process,” as used in Part Two, is the process or processes that implement the process area.
The terms “process,” “subprocess” and “process element” form a hierarchy with “process” as the highest, most general term, “subprocesses” below it, and “process element” as the most specific. A particular process can be called a subprocess if it is part of another larger process. It can also be called a process element if it is not decomposed into subprocesses.
This definition of process is consistent with the definition of process in ISO 9000, ISO 12207, ISO 15504, and EIA 731.

A plan, usually resulting from appraisals, that documents how specific improvements targeting the weaknesses uncovered by an appraisal will be implemented.

A team that has the responsibility to develop and implement process improvement activities for an organization as documented in a process action plan.

Incremental and innovative improvements to processes and to process, product, or service technologies.

(1) The ordering, interfaces, interdependencies, and other relationships among the process elements in a standard process, or (2) the interfaces, interdependencies, and other relationships between process elements and external processes.

A cluster of related practices in an area that, when implemented collectively, satisfies a set of goals considered important for making improvement in that area.

Anything the organization considers useful in attaining the goals of a process area. (See also “organizational process assets.”)

A collection of process asset holdings that can be used by an organization, project, or work group. (See also “organization’s process asset library.”)

A measurable characteristic of process capability applicable to any process.

The range of expected results that can be achieved by following a process.

The act of defining and describing a process.

A documented expression of a set of activities performed to achieve a given purpose.
A process description provides an operational definition of the major components of a process. The description specifies, in a complete, precise, and verifiable manner, the requirements, design, behavior, or other characteristics of a process. It also can include procedures for determining whether these provisions have been satisfied. Process descriptions can be found at the activity, project, work group, or organizational level.

The fundamental unit of a process.
A process can be defined in terms of subprocesses or process elements. A subprocess is a process element when it is not further decomposed into subprocesses or process elements. (See also “process” and “subprocess.”)
Each process element covers a closely related set of activities (e.g., estimating element, peer review element). Process elements can be portrayed using templates to be completed, abstractions to be refined, or descriptions to be modified or used. A process element can be an activity or task.
The terms “process,” “subprocess,” and “process element” form a hierarchy with “process” as the highest, most general term, “subprocesses” below it, and “process element” as the most specific.

A collection of specialists who facilitate the definition, maintenance, and improvement of processes used by the organization.

A program of activities designed to improve the process performance and maturity of the organization’s processes, and the results of such a program.

A set of target characteristics established to guide the effort to improve an existing process in a specific, measurable way either in terms of resultant product or service characteristics (e.g., quality, product performance, conformance to standards) or in the way in which the process is executed (e.g., elimination of redundant process steps, combination of process steps, improvement of cycle time). (See also “organization’s business objectives” and “quantitative objective.”)

A plan for achieving organizational process improvement objectives based on a thorough understanding of current strengths and weaknesses of the organization’s processes and process assets.

A set of operations used to determine values of measures of a process and its resulting products or services for the purpose of characterizing and understanding the process. (See also “measurement.”)

The person (or team) responsible for defining and maintaining a process.
At the organizational level, the process owner is the person (or team) responsible for the description of a standard process; at the project or work group level, the process owner is the person (or team) responsible for the description of the defined process. A process can therefore have multiple owners at different levels of responsibility. (See also “defined process” and “standard process.”)

A measure of results achieved by following a process. (See also “measure.”)
Process performance is characterized by both process measures (e.g., effort, cycle time, defect removal efficiency) and product or service measures (e.g., reliability, defect density, response time).

A documented characterization of process performance, which can include central tendency and variation. (See also “process performance.”)
A process performance baseline can be used as a benchmark for comparing actual process performance against expected process performance.

A description of relationships among the measurable attributes of one or more processes or work products that is developed from historical process performance data and is used to predict future performance. (See also “measure.”)
One or more of the measureable attributes represent controllable inputs tied to a subprocess to enable performance of “what-if” analyses for planning, dynamic re-planning, and problem resolution. Process performance models include statistical, probabilistic and simulation based models that predict interim or final results by connecting past performance with future outcomes. They model the variation of the factors, and provide insight into the expected range and variation of predicted results. A process performance model can be a collection of models that (when combined) meet the criteria of a process performance model.

Making, altering, or adapting a process description for a particular end.
For example, a project or work group tailors its defined process from the organization’s set of standard processes to meet objectives, constraints, and the environment of the project or work group. (See also “defined process,” “organization’s set of standard processes,” and “process description.”)

A work product that is intended for delivery to a customer or end user.
This term has a special meaning in the CMMI Product Suite besides its common standard English meaning. The form of a product can vary in different contexts. (See also “customer,” “product component,” “service,” and “work product.”)

The initial approved technical data package defining a configuration item during the production, operation, maintenance, and logistic support of its lifecycle. (See also “configuration item,” “configuration management,” and “technical data package.”)
This term is related to configuration management.

A work product that is a lower level component of the product. (See also “product” and “work product.”)
Product components are integrated to produce the product. There can be multiple levels of product components.
Throughout the process areas, where the terms “product” and “product component” are used, their intended meanings also encompass services, service systems, and their components.
This term has a special meaning in the CMMI Product Suite besides its common standard English meaning.

A complete specification of a product or service component, including fit, form, function, performance, and any other requirement.
The period of time, consisting of phases, that begins when a product or service is conceived and ends when the product or service is no longer available for use.

The period of time, consisting of phases, that begins when a product or service is conceived and ends when the product or service is no longer available for use.
Since an organization can be producing multiple products or services for multiple customers, one description of a product lifecycle may not be adequate. Therefore, the organization can define a set of approved product lifecycle models. These models are typically found in published literature and are likely to be tailored for use in an organization.
A product lifecycle could consist of the following phases: (1) concept and vision, (2) feasibility, (3) design/development, (4) production, and (5) phase out.

A group of products sharing a common, managed set of features that satisfy specific needs of a selected market or mission and that are developed from a common set of core assets in a prescribed way. (See also “service line.”)
The development or acquisition of products for the product line is based on exploiting commonality and bounding variation (i.e., restricting unnecessary product variation) across the group of products. The managed set of core assets (e.g., requirements, architectures, components, tools, testing artifacts, operating procedures, software) includes prescriptive guidance for their use in product development. Product line operations involve interlocking execution of the broad activities of core asset development, product development, and management.
Many people use “product line” just to mean the set of products produced by a particular business unit, whether they are built with shared assets or not. We call that collection a "portfolio," and reserve "product line" to have the technical meaning given here.

Processes associated with a product or service throughout one or more phases of its life (e.g., from conception through disposal), such as manufacturing and support processes.

A refinement of customer requirements into the developers’ language, making implicit requirements into explicit derived requirements. (See also “derived requirements” and “product component requirements.”)
The developer uses product requirements to guide the design and building of the product or service.

(See “CMMI Product Suite.”)

A refinement of customer requirements into the developers’ language, making implicit requirements into explicit derived requirements. (See also “derived requirements” and “product component requirements.”)
The developer uses product requirements to guide the design and building of the product or service.
The developer uses product requirements to guide the design and building of the product or service.

A plan that provides the basis for performing and controlling the project’s activities, which addresses the commitments to the project’s customer.
Project planning includes estimating the attributes of work products and tasks, determining the resources needed, negotiating commitments, producing a schedule, and identifying and analyzing project risks. Iterating through these activities may be necessary to establish the project plan.

What a project achieves with respect to implementing project plans, including effort, cost, schedule, and technical performance. (See also “technical performance.”)

When a set of interrelated resources for a project are directed to develop or deliver one or more products or services for a customer or end user. (See also “project.”)

A preliminary type, form, or instance of a product, service, product component, or service component that serves as a model for later stages or for the final, complete version of the product or service.
This model of the product or service (e.g., physical, electronic, digital, analytical) can be used for the following (and other) purposes:
• Assessing the feasibility of a new or unfamiliar technology
• Assessing or mitigating technical risk
• Validating requirements
• Demonstrating critical features
• Qualifying a product or service
• Qualifying a process
• Characterizing performance or features of the product or service
• Elucidating physical principles