In CMMI, Process Areas (PAs) can be grouped into the following four categories to understand their interactions and links with one another regardless of their defined level:

• · Process Management
• · Project Management
• · Engineering
• · Support

The Process Management process areas of CMMI are as follows:

• · Organizational Process Focus
• · Organizational Process Definition
• · Organizational Training
• · Organizational Process Performance
• · Organizational Innovation and Deployment

For example in Organizational Process Performance Process Area:

SP 1.4 “Compare the organization’s process performance baselines to the associated objectives.”

SP 1.3 “Establish and maintain quantitative objectives for quality and process performance for the organization”

SP 1.5 “Establish and maintain the process performance models for the organization's set of standard processes”

(ISBSG models such as: Maintenance & Support, effort distribution, benchmarking, and prediction models such as the comparative estimating tool and reality checker etc can be useful for SP 1.5)

As another example, in the Organizational Innovation and Deployment (OID) process area an organization selects and deploys proposed incremental and innovative improvements that improve the organization’s ability to meet its quality and process-performance objectives. The identification of promising incremental and innovative improvements can involve the industry benchmarking and indicate what is valued by other organizations. The ISBSG repository can be used for both benchmarking as well as identifying new concepts or innovations.

For the institutionalisation of OID practices the innovative concept of Scope Management utilising the ISBSG project data, can also used.

Project Management: The process areas cover the project management activities related to planning, monitoring, and controlling the project. The Project Management process areas of CMMI are as follows:

• · Project Planning
• · Project Monitoring and Control
• · Supplier Agreement Management
• · Integrated Project Management for IPPD (or Integrated Project Management)
• · Risk Management
• · Integrated Teaming
• · Integrated Supplier Management
• · Quantitative Project Management

Planning begins with requirements that define the product and project (“What to Build”) this is where the ISBSG repository can have an important role to play. The project plan covers various project management and engineering activities that will be performed by the project.

The Quantitative Project Management process area applies quantitative and statistical techniques to manage process performance and product quality. Quality and process-performance objectives for the project are based on those established by the organization or in published benchmarking data such as that of the ISBSG. The project’s defined process comprises, in part, process elements and sub-processes whose process performance can be predicted.

As an example, to implement QPM: SP 1.4 i.e. “Monitor the project to determine whether the project’s objectives for quality and process performance will be satisfied, and identify corrective action as appropriate”. Estimates (predictions) for achievement of the project’s quality and process performance objectives can be used.

Engineering: Engineering process areas cover the development and maintenance activities that are shared across engineering disciplines (e.g., systems engineering and software engineering). The six process areas in the Engineering process area category have inherent interrelationships. The ISBSG information can help when the relationships stem from applying a product development process rather than discipline-specific processes such as software engineering or systems engineering.

The Engineering process areas of CMMI are as follows:

• · Requirements Development
• · Requirements Management
• · Technical Solution
• · Product Integration
• · Verification
• · Validation

Support: Support process areas cover the activities that support product development and maintenance. In general the Support process areas address processes that are targeted towards the project, and may address processes that apply more generally to the organization. For example, Process and Product Quality Assurance can be used with all the process areas to provide an objective evaluation of the processes and work products described in all of the process areas.

The Support process areas of CMMI are as follows:

• · Process and Product Quality Assurance
• · Configuration Management
• · Measurement and Analysis
• · Organizational Environment for Integration
• · Decision Analysis and Resolution
• · Causal Analysis and Resolution

These Support process areas provide the projects and organization with an advanced support capability and the same can be achieved from ISBSG repository and various tools.

For example using the Causal Analysis and Resolution process area, the project strives to understand the common causes of variation inherent in processes and remove them from the project’s processes by the help of Organization / Industry experiences like those contained in the ISBSG projects, as well as using this knowledge to continually improve the organization’s processes.

How the ISBSG can help an Organization involved in CMMI model implementation and with CMMI appraisal:

• The ISBSG benchmarking data can help us in forming building blocks for a formal internal benchmarking event
• The SCAMPI appraisal method is a tool for benchmarking an organization’s process improvement achievements against other organizations in the industry through maturity level rating but ISBSG benchmarking data can give us one level below the maturity level rating to provide a comparison of how we are progressing vis-à-vis the best of class world wide projects.
• The Benchmark reports from the ISBSG can also help in setting new guidelines or to improve the existing guidelines for future process improvement, which can be a real value-add for any high maturity (ML 4 & 5) organization.
• Data available in the ISBSG repository can be used to form a valid criterion for tailoring the CMMI Model based on the business requirements.
• ISBSG data can be used as an instrument for implementing CMMI and also for continual improvement