Now that you have been introduced to the components of CMMI models, you need to understand how they fit together to meet your process improvement needs. This chapter introduces the concept of levels and shows how the process areas are organized and used.

CMMI-DEV does not specify that a project or organization must follow a particular process flow or that a certain number of products be developed per day or specific performance targets be achieved. The model does specify that a project or organization should have processes that address development related practices. To determine whether these processes are in place, a project or organization maps its processes to the process areas in this model.

The mapping of processes to process areas enables the organization to track its progress against the CMMI-DEV model as it updates or creates processes. Do not expect that every CMMI-DEV process area will map one to one with your organization’s or project’s processes.