Carnegie Mellon Software Engineering Institute and General Motors Launch CMMI

DENVER, Nov. 15, 2005 -- The Carnegie Mellon Software Engineering Institute (SEI) and General Motors Corporation, in coordination with the government/industry/SEI CMMI Steering Group, today announced a joint effort to create a new business process improvement model for companies looking to source information technology capabilities from third-party suppliers.

The SEI and GM will co-develop the initial model for use by government and industry organizations. The initial model will be based on the existing CMMI Acquisition Module, which was created by a CMMI team of government, industry and academic experts for the U.S. Department of Defense in 2004. Additional government and industry stakeholders will review and further develop this initial acquisition model before it will be submitted to the CMMI Steering Group for approval.

"We have been successful in driving common IT process standards across GM's global organization and introducing this concept to our many IT suppliers," said Ralph Szygenda, Group Vice President and CIO of General Motors. "Together with the SEI and the CMMI Steering Group, we believe we can develop a third-generation sourcing model that will not only bring benefit to General Motors, but to the information technology industry in general. Over time, all companies will be able to leverage this model to gain the most from their information technology suppliers. Meanwhile, IT suppliers will be able to leverage this model to provide more robust and efficient support to their business customers."

SEI Director and Chief Executive Officer Paul D. Nielsen stated that the expansion of the CMMI framework to include an acquisition model demonstrates the SEI and CMMI team's understanding of the dynamic IT market and the need to improve the acquisition practices of customers.

"Organizations will be able to leverage their existing investments in CMMI-based process improvement to improve their acquisition practices," said Nielsen. "General Motors' initiative in this area will lead to improvement of acquisition practices for all organizations, defense, civil, and commercial, who work in a more integrated way with their suppliers on challenging systems. We have learned that the process maturity of the acquirer can impact the effectiveness of a supplier no matter how sophisticated the supplier's process maturity is."

CMMI is a process improvement approach that provides organizations with the essential elements of effective processes. CMMI can be used to guide process improvement across a project, a division, or an entire organization. The model helps integrate traditionally separate organizational functions, sets process improvement goals and priorities, provides guidance for quality processes, and provides a point of reference for appraising current processes. General Motors Information Systems & Services (GM IS&S) views CMMI as the preferred framework for deploying common process improvement across IT in an organization.

The initial acquisition model will be in conformance with CMMI best practices, and will address the processes, practices, and activities an acquiring organization performs to manage its supplier interactions. It will address acquirers' processes that are not part of the current engineering- related CMMI models. It can also be used with the Standard CMMI Appraisal Method for Process Improvement (SCAMPISM) Class A appraisal to achieve and determine a maturity level rating.

GM IS&S anticipates an initial draft by December 2005 and an SEI special report of the initial model for public release will be published by the end of the first quarter 2006.

General Motors Corp. , the world's largest automaker, has been the global industry sales leader since 1931. Founded in 1908, GM today employs about 317,000 people around the world. It has manufacturing operations in 32 countries and its vehicles are sold in 200 countries. In 2004, GM sold nearly 9 million cars and trucks globally, up 4 percent and the second-highest total in the company's history. GM's global headquarters are at the GM Renaissance Center in Detroit. More information on GM can be found at http://www.gm.com/.