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Future Software attains P-CMM Level 3

Shobha Warrier in Madras

Madras-based Future Software has achieved the unique distinction of being the first communications software company in the world to attain the Software CMM Level 5 and the People CMM Level 3 assessments.

With the help of capability maturity model for software, many organisations have made improvements in their software processes and practices. Many of these organisations have discovered that their continued improvement requires significant changes in the way they manage people, changes that are not fully accounted for in the CMM for software.

Most improvement programs for software organisations have emphasized process or technology, not people.

The People Capability Maturity Model framework developed at the Software Engineering Institute, Pittsburgh, US focuses on developing the organisation's talent, especially in software and information systems development.

The motivation for the P-CMM is to radically improve the ability of software organisations to attract, develop, motivate, organise and retain the talent needed to consistently improve software development capability.

It describes an evolutionary improvement path from ad hoc, inconsistently performed practices, to a mature, disciplined development of the knowledge, skills, and motivation of the work force, just as the Software-CMM describes an evolutionary improvement path for the software processes within an organization.

Like the Software-CMM, the People-CMM is designed to address issues in eight primary areas; recruiting, selection, performance management, training, career development, compensation and reward, team and culture development, and organisation and work design.

Since its inception in 1985, Future Software Limited (http://www.futsoft.com) has focused on the communications software and embedded systems areas, providing software services and products to leading global communications equipment vendors.

The company, with subsidiaries in the US and UK has been assessed at People CMM Level 3 developed by Software Engineering Institute of Carnegie Mellon University, by KPMG.

"Future Software has mature people practices and it integrates the workforce development with software process improvements in order to establish a culture of software engineering excellence. The company's business strategy and people practices are aligned and the motivation of the people is also aligned with that of the organisation. It has the commitment to develop its employees to enhance its reputation as an 'employer of choice' which is very critical when competing for scarce technical talent," said K V Ramani, chairman and managing director of Future Software.

Commenting on the achievement, N V Rajan, HR head of Future Software, said, "The software process improvement efforts should run parallel with the people improvement activities. This achievement reflects the synergy between HR and the software engineering process group in our organisation. It also showcases the robust HR systems and the best people practices we have in place. Of course, this is only a significant milestone in our continuing journey towards excellence.

T Srinivas, authorised lead assessor, KPMG, commented, "Future Software has demonstrated how the tenets of P-CMM can be applied to enhance the competency capabilities and the business value of the organisation. The automated tools based support for the process deployment both on the software and people front has created a framework for effective institutionalization."

Future Software, after obtaining the ISO 9001 certification 1998 adopted the Software Engineering Institute's Capability Maturity Model (SEI CMM) and the company was assessed at CMM Level 4 in June 1999, at Level 5 in May 2001 (by KPMG) and it has been assessed at People CMM Level 3 now.

An excited K V Ramani considers achieving P-CMM level 3 a great achievement. "We are very proud of achieving P-CMM level 3 which puts us amongst very few organisations in the world, with mature processes for software and people practices. The achievement underlines Future Software's commitment to deliver quality products and services at the right time and cost by ensuring a right balance between process, people and technology."

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