ASM Achieves CMMI Level 2

Fairfax, VA – November 13, 2009

ASM has joined the select ranks of other world-class companies by attaining a CMMI Maturity Level 2 appraisal. ASM was appraised by ChangeBridge Consulting, Inc., an independent and authorized Software Engineering Institute (SEI) Partner.

“This success demonstrates to our customers that our development and business processes are up to best processes within the industry,” said George Nebeling, Vice President and General Manager of ASM’s Health Solutions Group.

David Alderton, Process Improvement Manager at ASM, agreed. “This achievement confirms ASM’s long-term vision of growing the company with processes that will support that growth,” he said. Now that ASM has made this first big step, he believes a CMMI Level 3 rating is an achievable goal for 2010.

Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) is a standardized set of processes, created by SEI, that help businesses assess and improve their software development and systems engineering capabilities. CMMI is recognized around the world as a value to the Government because it proves reliability to deliver services on time and on budget.

A CMMI Level 2 rating means that processes are characterized for specific projects and managed at the project level. The CMMI handbook says that the organization’s process discipline must be such that “existing practices are retained during times of stress….When these practices are in place, projects are performed and managed according to their documented plans.”

ASM successfully passed the examination for Level 2 on September 25, after months of working hard and commissioning a Process Action Team (PAT) to meet the requirements of each of the 7 Process Areas contained within CMMI Maturity Level 2. These Process Areas are: Configuration Management, Measurement and Analysis, Project Monitoring and Control, Project Planning, Process and Product Quality Assurance, Requirements Management, and Supplier Agreement Management.

Said Alderton, “I think ASM has always had a lot of good processes that people have implemented, but they weren’t formalized, and they relied on some heroes, actually. We’ll always rely on heroes, but as we continue to grow, I think it will be less and less. We’ll have better understood processes across the company, and we’ll have more repeatable processes.”

Alderton believes that commitment to CMMI, combined with ASM’s equally strong commitment to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK), ensures the contracting world that ASM has a highly professional staff. “We’re following industry standard best practices for processes and practices for project management, and I think those are valuable assets to ASM for our customers looking to do business with us.”

According to the SEI database of published appraisals, only a small percentage (less than 5%) of organizations around the world are appraised at CMMI Maturity Level 2.

About ASM Research
ASM Research, Inc. is an employee-owned company with a 30-plus year history providing IT systems integration, program management, information security and assurance, healthcare / medical management, and educational / training solutions to Federal Government and public institution clients.