IBM backs local CMMI initiative

By Warwick Ashford, ITWeb London correspondent

Johannesburg, 06 Dec 2006

Internationally recognised certification is essential for any company that's serious about delivering a quality product in the software engineering space, says Susan Barnard, software engineering process manager for IBM SA.

She says that's why IBM around the world supports the Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) certification. As well as ensuring product quality, Barnard says CMMI is essential for doing business internationally and improving the visibility and credibility of any software company.

"CMMI provides a process optimisation framework for any company that depends on consistent delivery of quality," she says.

IBM also supports CMMI because it ensures standardisation and documentation. Barnard says this promotes understanding between members of development teams and ensures the intellectual property of organisations is retained long after individuals involved in projects have left.

CMMI was originally developed by the Software Engineering Institute at Carnegie Mellon University in the US, to help companies from various industry sectors to improve their software development processes.

IBM was one of the six companies to take part in the first course to be run last month as part of the CMMI pilot programme initiated by the Johannesburg Centre for Software Engineering (JCSE), at Wits University.

"The JCSE has made CMMI so much more affordable and accessible to South African companies that want to improve processes in the development of high-quality software and systems," says Barnard.

Home ground advantage

Until now, Barnard says IBM and other local companies had to either send staff overseas for training or bring someone from overseas to conduct courses locally. But this approach has definite disadvantages.

Apart from the most obvious drawback of the cost involved, Barnard says last month's CMMI introductory course in Johannesburg proved that local presenters were better able to communicate the concepts to local business.

"It's definitely an advantage to have course presenters who understand the local industry and market conditions as well they understand CMMI," she says.

Another advantage of having local CMMI training facilities is that training and assessments can be scheduled more easily around company workloads. This is not possible when overseas presenters are involved.

Once CMMI is implemented, various interim assessments are conducted before a final appraisal for a particular level of certification is awarded. Barnard says having a locally-based CMMI assessor means companies can afford to do multiple interim assessments.

The next three-day course aimed at introducing companies to the CMMI process improvement model will take place in the second week of December. Thereafter, the JCSE plans monthly courses in Johannesburg and Cape Town.