The capability maturity model (CMM) was developed by the Software Engineering Institute at Carnegie Mellon University as a useful and powerful tool meant to provide guidance in software process improvement efforts. It is a generally applicable model that focuses on “what” rather than “how.”

CMM is the application of total quality management concepts to the process of developing and maintaining software. It enables managers to measure their organizations’ capabilities against a recognized standard and to determine their relative level of software maturity. Many managers, however, have been uncertain of how to implement CMM in their organizations. This book provides the step-by-step instructions and guidance needed to put CMM into practice and conduct software process improvement. It is a pragmatic guideline for how to address CMM in an organizational context.

The author, drawing on her first-hand experience in leading process development groups at Unysis, provides sound advice on how to get started, enumerates the problems that are likely to be encountered, and offers workable solutions that have proven effective in a variety of situations. The book is written for software managers involved with total quality management and process improvement. For those venturing into CMM, it will be a valuable resource.

The primary agent for implementing CMM is the software engineering process group (SEPG), a team of software professionals responsible for driving and facilitating process improvement within the organization. The goals of this book are to help SEPGs understand successful improvement in the CMM, work as partners with their customers, and facilitate process improvement efforts that their organizations are willing to accept and follow; to provide tools and techniques for SEPGs; and to provide encouragement for starting and continuously optimizing software process improvement efforts.

The first half of the book contains the description and checkpoints for CMM and explains how CMM can benefit any software organization. It is written in a cheerleading, encouraging, self-help style that not only provides the necessary details, but gives prospective practitioners the feel-good enthusiasm to try to make this process work. The pages are filled with graphs, tables, lists, and charts that provide ample ammunition with which believers can convince their managers of the benefits and applicability of CMM.

The second half of the book is devoted to a number of appendices providing amplification of the graphs, tables, lists, and charts covered in the first part. Most of these have been used at Unysis or similar organizations and have proven beneficial. A CD-ROM is included that contains material from the appendices that can be quickly converted into presentations, handouts, and other literature that managers might need.

I must mention the author’s entertaining writing style. Drawing on her experience as a professional ballet dancer, she has created a believable running analogy between the software development process and the choreography of a dance--thus, the book’s subtitle. This analogy brings the book alive, helping to bring meaning and relevance to the material.