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CMMI V3.0 Domains – The Virtual Domain

Writer's picture: Jonathan DeanJonathan Dean

Updated: Oct 28, 2024


The latest version of the Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI®) includes 8 specialist interest "domains" that extend the best practice in the core elements of the model by providing additional practices that are specifically related to an area of particular interest.


This post outlines one of these domains, the Virtual domain, and discusses the business value that this domain can deliver to an organization.


The origin of this domain in part lies with the COVID pandemic of 2020. As the pandemic took hold and the world started to go into various different forms of lockdown it became clear that the traditional ways of working, where people were largely office-based and collaborated primarily in a face-to-face manner in a shared physical work-space, would need to be adjusted to adapt to the various isolation policies of different governments and organizations.


Thankfully, the technology at the time was sufficiently advanced that tools such as Zoom and MS Teams were already well established in many organizations, and a component of virtual working was already being weaved into their normal working practices.


Nonetheless, the almost overnight transition from largely office based to largely virtual working was a significant challenge and it became clear that if organizations were to successfully transition to a largely virtual working pattern, “best practice” around the virtual workspace would be an important enabler.


ISACA developed a Virtual Working toolkit to enable the CMMI community to benefit from some guidance with Virtual working and over time this has evolved and ultimately been absorbed into the latest version of CMMI as the ‘Virtual’ Domain.


As the world came out of lockdown and started to return to more traditional ways of working, it became clear that an increasing level of virtual working was now the ‘norm’. Hence the need  for  identifying best practice to ensure that virtual working is effective, well planned and managed, remains vitally important.


The Virtual domain encompasses practices designed to help organizations operate efficiently in a virtual environment. By identifying their virtual working needs and developing strategies aligned with the overall organizational goals, organizations can enhance their virtual operations effectively.


As such, the Virtual domain is one that is likely to have relevance to most organizations regardless of the type of market sector within which they operate.


If you wish to learn more about the Virtual Domain, or if you are intending to be part of an appraisal team looking at the Virtual domain, the new Building Organizational Capability (BOC) course covers this, along with the other 7 specialist domains and is the only course that qualifies you for service on a CMMI Appraisal covering the Virtual Domain.


For more information on the BOC course or to sign up to one of our classes, visit: