December 25, 2002
Software developers and administrators Furukawa Information Technology Corp. (FITEC; president: Kazuhiko Masuda; head office: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Furukawa Electric, has won Level 3 status following assessment for CMM (Capability Maturity Model) qualification. CMM is an international standard that provides an objective appraisal of software development capabilities.
A set of criteria for judging software development capabilities, CMM was developed by the Carnegie Mellon Software Engineering Institute in the United States. The CMM developer also offers CMM accreditation. CMM consists of five levels, ranging from Level 1 to 5. The progress of an organization is determined by assessing the maturity of its process management capabilities, based on the idea that process management is the most important aspect of software development.
Level 3 is an advanced level, indicating that the different processes in software development are carried out according to a defined set of rules across the whole of the company organization, indispensable for businesses seeking to branch out internationally. To date, only ten or so companies in Japan have won this ranking. So far, around 8500 companies and organizations worldwide, mainly in the United States and India, have been assessed. Only 15% have achieved Level 3 or higher in the first round of assessments. FITEC's first two-week assessment resulted in its winning Level 3 status in November.
CMM is widely used in the United States by a variety of organizations, from government bureaus to ordinary businesses. For example, the U.S. Department of Defense, the largest consumer of software in the country, demands a minimum of Level 3 for companies bidding for software development projects. There is also a growing movement in Japan to adopt CMM or a similar standard as part of the selection criteria for government procurement. Having achieved Level 3, FITEC intents to continue to improve its levels of customer satisfaction - the original reason for obtaining the qualification - and to advance the standardization of development processes throughout the company, with the goal of attaining Level 5.