About the CMMI for Services

What Is the CMMI for Services?

The CMMI for Services (CMMI-SVC) is a process improvement framework for service organizations. It was developed by the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) at Carnegie Mellon University, and released in February 2009.

How Is It Different from the CMMI?

The model often simply called the CMMI (Capability Maturity Model Integration) is more properly referred to as the CMMI for Development (CMMI-DEV). This model focuses on the development of products (or services), and is often applied to the engineering of software-intensive systems. The focus of CMMI-SVC is service delivery rather than development. (A CMMI for Acquisition, or CMMI-ACQ, also exists.)

What Types of Services Are Covered By the CMMI for Services?

Virtually any. The CMMI for Services defines a service as a “product that is intangible and non-storable.” Like physical products, services are intended for delivery to a customer or end user. Unlike other models that may focus on specific types of services, CMMI-SVC is widely applicable – potential domains include information technology (IT) services, transportation, health care, training, consulting… the list goes on.

How Does the CMMI-SVC Differ From ITIL and Other Service Models?

CMMI models, including the CMMI for Services, are written to be non-prescriptive. Thus, CMMI-SVC focuses on what should be done, rather than how to do things. Several other service-oriented models, including ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library), are more prescriptive and focus on specific domains. CMMI-SVC also offers a clearer improvement path and provides for more extensive support at the organizational level than many other service models.

I Work for a Very Small Service Organization. Would CMMI-SVC Be Overkill for Us?

Almost certainly… if you tried to adopt the whole thing at once. The beauty of using the CMMI-SVC (or any CMMI model) for legitimate process improvement is that you don’t have to implement the whole thing! Pick the areas of the model that you believe can help you the most and simply address those. Then iterate as needed. This approach is currently being taken by small companies such as Leading Edge Process Consultants, and has been described in the CMMI Survival Guide (Suzanne Garcia and Richard Turner).

How Can I Learn More?

Visit the SEI's CMMI for Services web page to download the model. Watch for more resources to become available, from the SEI and other vendors.

Also consider taking the official SEI class entitled Services Supplement for CMMI v1.2. The current prerequisite for this class is the three-day SEI Introduction to CMMI v1.2 course (CMMI-DEV); both classes will be needed to serve on most CMMI-SVC appraisal teams, and are critical to employees involved in CMMI-SVC-based improvement initiatives. (Search for vendors using the SEI Partner Directory, or simply attend one of the already scheduled public classes.)