The Capability Maturity Model (CMM) was developed at Carnegie Mellon University's Software Engineering Institute (SEI) in the mid-1990s. The book The Capability Maturing Model: Guidelines for Improving the Software Process , was published in 1995. (It had four editors and nine other contributors.

I am working with the people at a manufacturing company to help them select an ERP system. At this point, my client has decided to pursue a package solution with little or no customizations -- a noble goal if there ever was one. But my, oh my, what a messy job this has turned out to be. I call this "The Messy World of Package Selection," but maybe it is more aptly titled, "The Messy World of Vendor Rejection"!

Risks are a part of life, and therefore business. For organizations that practice sound risk management, and use risk techniques and tools, risks can be identified, avoided, minimized, and accepted to give companies a competitive advantage.

Agile software development is a hot topic. As a generalization, it emphasizes team-oriented software develop practices that incorporate activities and steps that lead to successful software development.

"A fundamental problem in our industry is that software projects are chronically overconstrained and underspecified," said Cutter Senior Consultant Ken Orr. This statement underscored a lively debate during the Modern Project Management panel discussion at the recent Summit 2002 conference.

So, your organization is faced with an upgrade of your enterprise resource planning (ERP) application. Your executives do not view this as a large-scale effort, but you and your staff know far better. Now what?

Most readers are familiar with the Capability Maturity Model (CMM), which was developed by the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) at Carnegie Mellon University and first released in 1990. CMM is a major effort to describe best practices in software development.