CMMI Acquisition Introduction

Tim - Spring 2008

The CMMI-ACQ v1.2 model is a collection of acquisition best practices from government and industry. It builds upon the foundation of material that is in common with CMMI for Development and CMMI for Services while providing guidance for initiating and managing the acquisition of products and services by an Acquirer that meet the needs of the customer and end users.

The focus of the CMMI-ACQ v1.2 is on the processes and activities of the Acquirer and include:

•  Supplier sourcing
•  Developing and awarding supplier agreements
•  Managing the acquisition of capabilities, including the acquisition of both products and services

According to recent studies, 20 to 25 percent of large information technology (IT) acquisition projects fail within two years and 50 percent fail within five years.

Acquisition of needed capabilities is challenging because Acquirers must take overall accountability for satisfying the user of the needed capability while allowing the Supplier to perform the tasks necessary to develop and provide the solution.