Achieving CMMI Level 2 with Enhanced Extreme Programming Approach

TL;DR

This paper presents an empirical case study demonstrating that Extreme Programming can achieve CMMI Level 2, but requires additional interpretations and adaptations of the CMMI framework for agile organizations.

Contribution

It provides empirical evidence that CMMI Level 2 can be achieved with XP and discusses the challenges of applying CMMI to agile processes.

Findings

XP can reach CMMI Level 2 with adaptations

Assessing agile organizations with CMMI requires more interpretation

CMMI does not fully support agile context interpretations

Abstract

The relationship between agile methods and Software Engineering Institute's CMM approach is often debated. Some authors argue that the approaches are compatible, while others have criticized the application of agile methods from the CMM perspective. Only few CMM based assessments have been performed on projects using agile approaches. This paper explores an empirical case where a project using Extreme Programming (XP) based approach was assessed using the CMMI framework. The results provide empirical evidence pointing out that it is possible to achieve maturity level 2 with approach based on XP. Yet, the results confirm that XP, as it is defined, is not sufficient. This study demonstrates that it is possible to use the CMMI for assessing and improving agile processes. However, the analysis reveals that assessing an agile organization requires more interpretations than normally would be the case. It is further concluded that the CMMI model does not always support interpretations in an agile context.