Process areas are viewed differently in the two representations. Figure 3.2 compares views of how process areas are used in the continuous representation and the staged representation.

Figure 3.2: Process Areas in the Continuous and Staged Representations

The continuous representation enables the organization to choose the focus of its process improvement efforts by choosing those process areas, or sets of interrelated process areas, that best benefit the organization and its business objectives. Although there are some limits on what an organization can choose because of the dependencies among process areas, the organization has considerable freedom in its selection.

To support those who use the continuous representation, process areas are organized into four categories: Process Management, Project Management, Acquisition Engineering, and Support. These categories emphasize some of the key relationships that exist among the process areas.

Sometimes an informal grouping of process areas is mentioned: high maturity process areas. The four high maturity process areas are: Organizational Process Performance, Quantitative Project Management, Organizational Performance Management, and Causal Analysis and Resolution. These process areas focus on improving the performance of implemented processes that most closely relate to the organization’s business objectives.

Once you select process areas, you must also select how much you would like to mature processes associated with those process areas (i.e., select the appropriate capability level). Capability levels and generic goals and practices support the improvement of processes associated with individual process areas. For example, an organization may wish to reach capability level 2 in one process area and capability level 3 in another. As the organization reaches a capability level, it sets its sights on the next capability level for one of these same process areas or decides to widen its view and address a larger number of process areas. Once it reaches capability level 3 in most of the process areas, the organization can shift its attention to the high maturity process areas and can track the capability of each through capability level 3.

The selection of a combination of process areas and capability levels is typically described in a “target profile.” A target profile defines all of the process areas to be addressed and the targeted capability level for each. This profile governs which goals and practices the organization will address in its process improvement efforts.

Most organizations, at minimum, target capability level 1 for the process areas they select, which requires that all of these process areas’ specific goals be achieved. However, organizations that target capability levels higher than 1 concentrate on the institutionalization of selected processes in the organization by implementing generic goals and practices.

The staged representation provides a path of improvement from maturity level 1 to maturity level 5 that involves achieving the goals of the process areas at each maturity level. To support those who use the staged representation, process areas are grouped by maturity level, indicating which process areas to implement to achieve each maturity level.

For example, at maturity level 2, there is a set of process areas that an organization would use to guide its process improvement until it could achieve all the goals of all these process areas. Once maturity level 2 is achieved, the organization focuses its efforts on maturity level 3 process areas, and so on. The generic goals that apply to each process area are also predetermined. Generic goal 2 applies to maturity level 2 and generic goal 3 applies to maturity levels 3 through 5.

Table 3.2 provides a list of CMMI-ACQ process areas and their associated categories and maturity levels.

Table 3.2 Process Areas, Categories, and Maturity Levels