Implementation of Software
Maintenance Maturity Model (SMmm)

(Quick Assessment Support Tool)

INTRODUCTION

SMmm or S3M stands for Software Maintenance Maturity Model . The S3M is based on the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) Capability Maturity Model Integration for the Software Engineering(CMMi ©), version 1.1 [Sei02] and Camélia [Camelia94]. The S3M must be viewed as a complement to the CMMi©, especially for the process that are common to developers and maintainers.

The S3M model:

  • is based on the customer's perspective
  • is relevant for the maintenance of application software: a) developed and maintained in house; b) configured and maintained in house or with a subcontractor's help and c) outsourced to an outside supplier
  • provides references and details for each exemplary practice
  • offers an improvement approach based on road maps and maintenance categories
  • covers ISO12207 [ISO 1995], ISO14764[ISO 1998] and IEEE1219[IEEE 1998] software life cycle processes and maintenance standards
  • covers most ISO90003:2004 [ISO 2004] characteristics and practices
  • covers relevant parts of the CMMi, a reference model for software improvement [SEI 2002]
  • conforms to the ISO15504 international standard and covers those of the model's practices that are relevant to software maintenance

The Model's Objective & Scope

S3M was designed as a customer focused benchmark for either:

  • Auditing the software maintenance capability of a software maintenance service supplier or outsourcer; or
  • Internal software maintenance organizations

Organizations can use this model to launch and sustain a continuous improvement program tailored to software maintenance by initially benchmarking their current maintenance practices against this model. This will help maintenance organizations identify their strengths and weaknesses in delivering software maintenance services. With the identification of a gap, maintenance organizations can identify what issues to address and how to address them which result in improving their software maintenance process.
The scope of this model is to deal with the software maintenance process that are under an organizations direct control. The scope of this model is restricted to small maintenance activities.

Test Your Enterprise

This model organises its practices into 4 Process Domains(Process Management, Request Management, Evolution Engineering, Support to Evolution Engineering),18 Key Process Areas(KPAs) and 74 Road maps. But this quick assessment support tool which deals with the subset consisting of 16 KPAs and 16 Roadmaps.Each domain span 6 capability(Maturity) levels which are designated by the numbers 0 through 5. If you want to know your organizations level of achievement in each capability level of a process area and want to improve your software maintenance process then proceed with "Test your Enterprise".
* Please hover or click on each level to
have a brief idea of that level

References

[1] Dipl.-Ing.(FH) Dipl.-Inf. Alain April(2005) S3M Model to Evaluate and Improve the Quality of Software Maintenance Process. Magdeburg

[2] Isabelle Côté(2004) Design and prototypical implementation of an ISO/IEC 15504 compliant PCD/PI Assessment Support Tool. Montréal, Quebec go The process is not being executed or there is no evidence that the process exists The process is performed but no evidence that process is systematically executed The process is deployed but varies from different organisations The process is defined and communicated and that the employees have received proper training but absence of qualitative characteristics that are predictable The process is formally executed and quantitatively managed according to specified goals within established boundaries The process has quantified improvement goals and is continually improved