Benefits of Capability Maturity Model (CMM)

Quality is the very essence of any organization. An individual is known by the level of quality he/she possesses. Similarly in an organization, be it a products or services company, the organisation is identified in the market by the level of quality it maintains.
The CMM provides software organizations with guidance on how to gain control of their processes for developing and maintaining software and to gradually evolve towards a culture of software engineering and management excellence.

Fundamentally speaking CMM helps an organization in two ways :
- Firstly, CMM instills definite practices, which results in an increase in profitability.
- Secondly and most importantly is the immediate change it brings about in an organization's culture and mentality, thereby helping it to climb up the CMM ladder.

The advantages of moving up the CMM ladder are evident in a large number of organizations :
- A shift from reactive to proactive management.
- Helps build a skilled and motivated workforce.
- Cuts cost in development and support system.
- Shortens delivery schedules and improves delivery of requirements.
- Results in customer satisfaction.
- Improves quality of software products.
- Induces robustness.
- Improves management decision-making.
- Introduces newer technology thus creating competitive advantages.

At Level 1 - Initial level : No benefits, inconsistency, schedule and budget overruns and defective applications.
At Level 2 - Repeatable level : By achieving CMM Level 2, projects can set realistic expectations, commit to attainable deadlines and avoid the Level 1 "death marches" on nights and weekends that produce excessive defects.
At Level 3 - Defined level : At Level 3, IS organizations use historical measures describing the performance of a common application development process as the basis for their estimations.
At Level 4 - Managed level : Predictable results. Knowledge of factors causing variance and reuse.
At Level 5 - Optimizing level : Continuously targeting improvements results

Many of the initial benefits from CMM-based improvement programs result from eliminating rework.