CMMI for Acquisition Process Areas

There are 6 CMMI for Acquisition (CMMI-ACQ) Process Areas (PAs) unique to this new constellation: Agreement Management (AM), Acquisition Requirements Development (ARD), Acquisition Technical Management (ATM), Acquisition Validation (AVAL), Acquisition Verification (AVER), and Solicitation and Supplier Agreement Development (SSAD). AM, ARD, and SSAD are Maturity Level 2 PAs and ATM, AVAL, and AVER are Maturity Level 3 PAs.

In addition to these six new PAs, there are other changes at the Specific Practice level in Project Planning (PP), Project Monitoring and Control (PMC), Integrated Project Management (IPM), and Organizational Process Definition (OPD).

PP SP 1.1 - Establish and maintain the acquisition strategy

PP SP 2.7 - Plan transition to operations and support (the addition of this SP makes the old SP 2.7 now SP 2.8)

PMC SP 1.8 - Monitor transition to operations and support

OPD SP 1.7 - Establsh and maintain organizational rules and guidelines for the structure, formation, and operation of integrated teams

IPM SP 1.6 - Establish and maintain integrated teams

The difficult concept to understand if your background is in the CMMI for Development (CMMI-DEV)is that every core PA is interpreted in the context of the acquirer's processes.

When looking at the Continuous Representation for CMMI-ACQ the category Acqusition replaces the category Engineering from the CMMI-DEV constellation. And the other change is that Requirements Management (REQM) is now included in the Project Management category.

And on a final note, it is possible to perform a blended appraisal CMMI-DEV and CMMI-ACQ.

CMMI for Acquisition

PPQC Adds Delivery of CMMI-ACQ Training and Appraisals to Its Offerings

I am pleased to announce that PPQC is now authorized by the Software Engineering Institute as a partner provider for the CMMI-ACQ, both as a provider of the CMMI-ACQ training class and also SCAMPI A, B, and C appraisals to the CMMI-ACQ. Visit these links for more information PPQC Services and PPQC Training.

The CMMI-ACQ version 1.2 was released in November 2007 and it provides guidance for the application of CMMI best practices by the acquirer. Best practices in the model focus on activities for initiating and managing the acquisition of products and services that meet the needs of the customer. Although suppliers may provide artifacts useful to the processes addressed in CMMI-ACQ, the focus of the model is on the processes of the acquirer. CMMI-ACQ integrates bodies of knowledge that are essential for an acquirer.

By integrating these bodies of knowledge, CMMI-ACQ provides a comprehensive set of best practices for acquiring products and services. CMMI-DEV may be treated as a reference for supplier-executed activities for systems engineering, software development, and hardware design work in an acquisition initiative. In those cases where the acquirer also has a role as a product or service developer (e.g., taking responsibility for the first few layers of product development and integration), CMMI-DEV (in particular the Requirements Development, Technical Solution, and Product Integration Process Areas) should also be used to improve the acquirer's product or service development processes.