Key process areas of Capability Maturity model (CMM)

Effectiveness, Predictability and control of an organization's software processes are believed to get better as the organization moves up these five levels. While not thorough the empirical evidence to date supports this belief.

Except for Level 1 every maturity level is decomposed into several key process areas that indicate the areas an organization should focus on to get better its software process. The major key process areas at Level 2 focus on the project's concerns related to establishing basic project management controls. They are mentioned as

 Requirements Management

Project Planning

Project Tracking and Oversight

Subcontract Management

Quality Assurance and

Configuration Management

The key process areas at Level 3 deal with both project and organizational issues as the organization establishes an infrastructure that institutionalizes effective engineering as well as management processes across all projects. They are Training Program, Organization Process Definition, Organization Process Focus, Integrated Management, Product Engineering, Intergroup Coordination and Peer Reviews.

The key process areas at Level 4 focal point on establishing a quantitative understanding of both the process as well as the work products being built. They are Quality Management and Quantitative Process Management.

The key process areas at Level 5 face the issues that both the organization and the projects must address to implement continual and measurable software process improvement. They are Technology Change Management, Defect Prevention and Process Change Management.

Every key process area is described in terms of the key practices that contribute to satisfying its goals. The key practices explain the infrastructure and activities that contribute most to the effective implementation and institutionalization of the key process area.