Conceptualization and Measurement of the Capability Maturity Model (CMM): An Examination of Past Practices and Suggestions for Future Applications

The Capability Maturity Model (CMM) has obtained world-wide status as a premier process improvement framework. This influence has not gone unnoticed by the academic community who has utilized the CMM as a key construct representing a firm’s IT project management and development capabilities. However, an examination of the current state of research reveals no consensus on how to best operationalize CMM-based process capability; therefore, this study seeks to start a dialog in the academic community about how CMM-based process capability should be conceptualized and measured. While the results do suggest that CMM-based process capability is multidimensional, and that a process structure rather than a level structure may be the most appropriate; the main intent of this research is to call attention to the need for greater rigor in the measurement and conceptualization of CMM-based process capability in the academic literature. The hope is this research represents a first step in developing a fully refined and validated CMM-based process capability measure.