Original Date: 04/07/1997
Revision Date: 04/14/2003

The three Applications Development Divisions within the Information Technology Directorate used software Engineering Institute's Capability Maturity Model to assess process maturity. It was discovered that organizations were at Level 1, on a scale of one to five, the ad hoc or chaotic stage, and that no metrics were in-place. The use function points were tried, but nothing productive was accomplished. The Work Reporting and Control System collected data on projects; however this data was found to be meaningless since there were no means to measure the size or complexity of projects.

The Divisions developed two sets of metrics to measure process maturity. The first set was for application development, and was used to measure the readiness of the Software Engineers to perform the mission. The areas measured were education, skills, investment in hardware, type of equipment, new development projects, and resource allocation. The Divisions found weaknesses in types of equipment and education. The second set of metrics measured efficiency. The areas measured were customer satisfaction, disruptions, administrative performance, personnel management, and productivity. Disruptions and administrative performance were found to be weak areas.

The Divisions’ goal is to improve to a Level 3 on the Capability Maturity Model scale. The metrics being measured should help attain this goal. All of the information and results are provided to the entire workforce which have helped ensure the credibility of the metrics and employee buy-in.

For more information see the Point of Contact for this survey.