EDS South Africa receives CMMI Level 2 accreditation

EDS today reported that its South African Solution Centre has achieved Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) Level 2 accreditation. This puts the South African Solution Centre at the forefront of EDS`s drive to achieve the new accreditation and it is the first unit within EDS to do so outside of North America.

It has set an EDS record for the quickest transition from Level 1 to Level 2; and is also believed to be first CMMI accreditation in Africa of any IT service provider.

"There are a number of benefits to the CMMI accreditation both for EDS and its clients," notes Stuart Mann, who leads EDS South Africa`s CMMI drive. "These include increased productivity and quality, fewer defects, lower cost to clients and greatly reduced risk of project failure. Another major benefit is the fact that adherence to CMMI standards means that the South African Solution Centre increases its ability to compete for a share of global EDS projects under EDS`s Best Shore SM global delivery strategy."

Best Shore enables EDS to place work wherever in world the skills exist to serve its clients` needs best, and SA has been nominated one of EDS`s Best Shore sites.

CMMI supersedes Capability Maturity Model (CMM) as the internationally-recognised standard of application development created by Carnegie Mellon University`s Software Engineering Institute. CMM established itself as a credible accreditation framework through which businesses could adopt best practices for software engineering, and so improve the software they produce. CMMI extends this by removing the barriers between software engineering and infrastructure, and enables the entire product development lifecycle to benefit from the improvements given by CMM. Like CMM, CMMI will allow organisations to move through five levels of accreditation, with Level 5 being the highest.

"One of the factors behind the success of India as both an applications development and business process outsourcing centre has been its focus on international standards like CMM and now CMMI," says Sar'e Grobler, Project Manager of SAVANT, which is the Department of Trade and Industry`s vehicle for marketing SA`s technological capabilities. "It`s good to see EDS, a founding member of SAVANT, lead the way in showing what we have to do in order to compete in the global market. Becoming part of a global network like EDS`s Best Shore delivery strategy can only strengthen the position of South Africa as a credible supplier of technology and related services to international customers."

Recent proof of the cardinal role CMMI can play in national strategies is the announcement by the Government of Victoria state in Australia that it will provide AUS$1 million in funding to assist local software development businesses gain CMMI Level 2 ratings.

Mann says the South African Solution Centre will be working hard to achieve CMMI Level 3 status in the same record time. "EDS has been in this business for over 40 years, and this is part of our continuing focus on leveraging best practice across the entire organisation around the world in order to bring our clients the best service," he adds. "The benefits of CMMI Level 2 are already apparent to us both in terms of productivity and reliable quality. However, CMMI is a progressive standard: this is not a goal achieved for us, but a journey begun."