Java™ Application Development on Linux - Dator

286Chapter 12Analysis and Design: Seeking the ObjectsAm I Mature? Or Are You My Mommy?Let us point you at one more business buzzword link. Even though wethink this particular site and their work are being ill-applied by manywell-intentioned IT managers, there is still a great deal of value in theCarnegie Mellon Capability Maturity Model (http://www.sei.cmu.edu/cmm/). At the very least it provides an objective way to assessthe level of process sophistication you have in your organization.The CMM defines five levels of maturity:1. Initial2. Repeatable3. Defined4. Managed5. OptimizingIf we may grossly oversimplify (and why should we stop now?),“Initial” means you do things differently every time. You just make yourbest guess about what the right thing to do is, and you do it. “Repeatable”means that you have hit upon a method that appears to work, and youuse it consistently. “Defined” means that somebody has written it down.“Managed” means that the process is actively maintained and supervisedin an effort to adapt it to changing circumstances. “Optimizing” meansthat measurements (“metrics”) are made that objectively assess the process,and ensure that continuous improvement takes place and can be soproven. *What we have shown you in this chapter probably falls in the Repeatablecategory, a long way from the engineering and management nirvanaof Optimizing.*The problem that seems to come up with this system is that very bad processes maybe very mature and very good processes may be relatively immature. Obviously,however, an Optimizing process must be steadily moving towards the good.