How to Use This Book

Whether you are new to process improvement, new to CMMI, or already familiar with CMMI, this book can help you understand why CMMI is the best model to use for improving your product life-cycle processes.

Readers New to Process Improvement

If you are new to process improvement or new to the CMM^® concept, we suggest that you read chapter 1, "Introduction," and the case study in chapter 7 first. Chapter 1 will give you an overview of process improvement and explain what CMMI is all about. Chapter 7 will help you to see how CMMI can be used by an organization. When you read chapter 7 the first time, don't be concerned about understanding all the terminology or details. Just read it to get an overall feel for what's going on in the case study. Then, go back and read chapters 1 through 7. When you read chapter 7 again, after reading the balance of Part One, you will understand the details much better.

Next, skim Part Two to get a feel for the scope of the best practices contained in CMMI. Pay closest attention to the statement of purpose at the beginning of each section.

In Part Three, look through the references in Appendix A and select additional sources you think would be beneficial to read before moving forward with using CMMI. Read through the acronyms and glossary to become familiar with the language of CMMI. Then, go back and read the details of Part Two.

Readers Experienced with Process Improvement

If you are new to CMMI but have experience with other process-improvement models, such as the Software CMM or the Systems Engineering CM (i.e., EIA 731), you will immediately recognize many similarities.

We recommend that you read Part One to understand how CMMI is different from other process-improvement models, but you may want to read some of the sections more quickly than others. Read Part Two with an eye open for best practices you recognize from the models you have already tried. Identifying familiar material gives you a feel for what is new and what has been carried over from the model you already know.

Next, review the glossary to understand how some terminology may differ from that used in the process-improvement model you know. Many concepts will be repeated, but they may be called something different.

Readers Familiar with CMMI

If you have reviewed or used one of the CMMI models available on the SEI Web site, you will quickly recognize the CMMI concepts discussed and the best practices presented. The differences between this book and the SEI-released models are mainly found in Part One, "About CMMI."

Although the continuous and staged representations of the models' best practices are presented together in Part Two, no changes were made that affect the meaning or applicability of these best practices. In Part One, we added information about the benefits of process improvement and historical information about process-improvement models for readers new to process improvement or to the CMM^® concept. We explained the vast similarities of the two representations reflected in the models and included detailed discussions of both capability levels and maturity levels and their importance in CMMI. To understand how the two representations have been formatted for Part Two, see the descriptions and illustrations of typographical conventions (Figures 2.2, 2.3 and 2.4) in chapter 2.

We also expanded the discussion of generic model components into a chapter that you will find more informative than what is found in the SEI-released models (see chapter 3). A chapter containing a case study of CMMI (chapter 7) was added to describe the real-life experience of an organization preparing to adopt CMMI.

In Part Three, "The Appendices and Glossary," we combined all terms and their definitions into the glossary, so that you can find definitions more quickly and easily. Terms are no longer addressed in a separate chapter in Part One.

As you read Part One, we recommend that you pay closest attention to chapter 3, "Process Institutionalization," and chapter 7, "CMMI Case Study: United Space Alliance, LLC." Review the format used in Part Two. This format helps you differentiate between the two representations.