Capability maturity models for collaborative networked organisations

Experiences in applying results from ECOLEAD on Collaborative Networked Organisations (CNOs) in real life have shown that the collaboration maturity level of SMEs (Small and Medium Enterprises), who joined these networks, are highly different. Soon it was found out that there are different process areas in which SMEs have strengths and weaknesses. This paper will introduce the essential process areas which should be assessed by standardised and well established assessment methods to be able to establish improvement programs out of the results. The process areas and the assessment methodology are derived from CMMI, which is nowadays the prevailing assessment method in the software development area, but is also enlarging it´s scope to other constellations (e.g. Services). Process areas of CMMI (Capability Maturity Model Integrated) will be analyzed insofar, if they are appropriate for CNOs and how they should be extended or modified. Concerning the CMMI process areas Dynamic Virtual Organisations behave more or less like distributed projects and hence the most process areas of CMMI may be applied. Completely different is the situation in the case of long term networks of Virtual Breeding Environments. In this case every process area must be evaluated individually. In this paper it will be shown, how these issues will be tackled in the recently established FP7 project COIN defining a Capability Maturity Model for CNOs.