Early this year, the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS) marked a major milestone when it achieved CMMI Capability Level 3 for its software development work.
CMMI (Capability Maturity Model Integration) is a process improvement approach to best practices across a project, division or an entire organisation. Results are graded according to maturity levels ranging from one to five or capability level one to three depending on which representation is selected for appraisal. Capability Level 3 is a level known as ‘Defined’. A “Defined” process is a “Managed” process that is tailored from the organisation's set of standard processes according to the organisation's tailoring guidelines, and contributes work products, measures, and other process-improvement information to the organisational process assets.
IRAS’ journey to the appraisal began in late 2008 when its infocomm division approached ISS to conduct an assessment of its capability in eight process areas under the categories of engineering, support and project management.
Over the few years, four ISS consultants – Gloria Ng, Chief of Service Innovation Practice; Goh Boon Nam, Chief of New Initiatives and Strategic Planning; Dr. Ramanathan Venkatraman, Evangelist of Advanced Software Design and Development; and Yunghans Irawan, Associate of Advanced Software Design and Development - were assigned the task.
Following the assessment, IRAS embarked on a programme of upgrading its organisational standards and capabilities, and developing competencies in its people to meet globally benchmarked standards.
During the whole process, the division’s commitment to the mission impressed lead appraiser Gloria. She recalled, “The team’s commitment to quality is highly commendable. Today, quality is not just embedded as a discipline within the department and part of the team’s DNA, but it is also internalised by all individuals in the team.”
“IRAS has learnt much from the process,” said Chua Koon Chuan, Manager of the ISAA-Infocomm Division. “It helped us gain insight into our strengths and weaknesses, thus facilitating our continual journey for improvement. We do not see this appraisal as an end in itself. In IRAS, we believe in producing quality IT systems and services.
“This CMMI project not only helped us improve our quality management and development practices but was also an opportunity for us to develop in-house expertise. Through our continuous strive for quality, we believe we can target a higher level of maturity in our CMMI journey.
Tang Wai Yee, CIO of IRAS, added, “ISS is to be commended. The team is very knowledgeable in the application and appraisal of CMMI. And all team members worked tirelessly with our QA and CMMI appraisal teams to educate and prepare us for the final appraisal. We had a very rewarding time working with the ISS team.”