1. Capability Maturity Model® for Business
Development (BD-CMM)
The BD-CMM is designed to guide Business Development (BD) organisations in selecting
high-priority improvement actions based on the maturity of their current practices. Its benefit
is in narrowing the scope of improvement activities to those key practices that provide the
most effective way to improve the organisation’s current BD performance.
BD-CMM creates
a vision of
excellence capable
of guiding major
process
improvement in
BD. It provides its
users with a
framework, path,
and guide for
achieving dramatic
process
improvements in
their organizations.
Users report:
• Enhanced effectiveness and efficiency.
• Improved predictability.
• More accurate projections of revenue.
• Increased control.
• More precise understanding of business development costs.
• Improved management visibility into business development.
The model’s scope encompasses the full BD life cycle and organizational components,
including marketing, sales, sales account management, proposal development, and others
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2. engaged in the BD enterprise. The model acknowledges the interdependence of all the
different components and that success is dependent on teamwork.
Using the BD-CMM allows organisations to work towards developing increasing maturity
levels in a step-by-step manner, as indicated in this table. The attainment of higher levels of
maturity leads to excellence and
Level Characteristics sustained competitive advantage.
5. Optimising Continuous BD process improvement enabled by quantitative feedback
from process and piloting innovative ideas and technology.
4. Managed Detailed measures of BD process and results are collected. Both the By concentrating on a focused set
process and products are quantitatively understood and controlled.
3. Defined Process for BD activities documented, standardised, and integrated of practices and working
into organisation. All activities follow approved, tailored version of
organisation’s standard process. aggressively to implement them,
2. Repeatable Basic BD management processes established to track cost, schedule,
and functionality. Necessary process discipline in place to repeat organisations can make lasting
earlier successes.
1. Initial Process characterised as ad hoc and occasionally even chaotic. Few
gains in their performance and
processes defined. Success depends on individual effort and heroics.
competitiveness.
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BD-CMM 08.doc
©Capability Maturity Model and CMM are registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office by Carnegie Mellon University
BD-CMM is owned by the Business Development Institute International (BD-Institute) and is used by permission
Copyright © Business Thinking Ltd, 2007