Rating: 
Summary: rehash of TR24 and TR25 - easier to use than the PDF files
Review: . .you need this book. everyone I know doing SW-CMM has a copy. It is a simpler easier to use copy of the CMM. You could get TR24 and TR25 for free. You will also need the Framework by Olson (download it free from the SEI). Unfortunately none of these will tell you how to streamline CMM for use by others than major government contractors. The SEI site won't provide it - are we supposed to be smarter than them? CMM is overkill for most organizations but many assessors make us do all of it anyway no matter how small our organisation or different our business needs (different from a LARGE GOVERNMENT CONTRACTOR). Catch 22. If you need a rating you need this book. If you need process improvement then skip CMM completely and do something better. All the basic factoids of the KPAs and practices are laid out in sequence. But the overall book is poorly organized and adds little value to the rehash of the TRs. Get the book cause it is needed and for what it does. Try to overlook the value added that could have been included but wasn't. See also Dymond's book and reviews there. Dymond adds a needed gestalt view for using this book. You could do without Dymond but you shouldn't. This book unfortunately is necessary as there is nothing better that includes the entire CMM except the Framework, which you will need all 900 pages of, to supplement this text. Get all 3 if you want to minimise the time to CMM success. I would give this zero stars but Amazon doesn't go that low. This book could have really been useful. But as it is, it is the only one that does what it does so we are stuck using it anyway. If you haven't done CMM yet you may want to consider going straight to CMMI as there are some changes that undo the SW-CMM bookkeeping needed to prove to an assessor that you are compliant. Some of the KPAs carry over as CMMI PAs but some get spread around and put into new PAs. . .
Rating:
Summary: rehash of TR24 and TR25 - easier to use than the PDF files
Review: . . you need this book. everyone I know doing SW-CMM has a copy. It is a simpler easier to use copy of the CMM. You could get TR24 and TR25 for free. You will also need the Framework by Olson (download it free from the SEI). Unfortunately none of these will tell you how to streamline CMM for use by others than major government contractors. The SEI site won't provide it - are we supposed to be smarter than them? CMM is overkill for most organizations but many assessors make us do all of it anyway no matter how small our organisation or different our business needs (different from a LARGE GOVERNMENT CONTRACTOR). Catch 22. If you need a rating you need this book. If you need process improvement then skip CMM completely and do something better. All the basic factoids of the KPAs and practices are laid out in sequence. But the overall book is poorly organized and adds little value to the rehash of the TRs. Get the book cause it is needed and for what it does. Try to overlook the value added that could have been included but wasn't. See also Dymond's book and reviews there. Dymond adds a needed gestalt view for using this book. You could do without Dymond but you shouldn't. This book unfortunately is necessary as there is nothing better that includes the entire CMM except the Framework, which you will need all 900 pages of, to supplement this text. Get all 3 if you want to minimise the time to CMM success. I would give this zero stars but Amazon doesn't go that low. This book could have really been useful. But as it is, it is the only one that does what it does so we are stuck using it anyway. If you haven't done CMM yet you may want to consider going straight to CMMI as there are some changes that undo the SW-CMM bookkeeping needed to prove to an assessor that you are compliant. Some of the KPAs carry over as CMMI PAs but some get spread around and put into new PAs. . .
Rating: 
Summary: Recommended for CMM-SW, not a book for exploring benefits
Review: At one time this was the definitive text on the CMM, but is rapidly showing its age because of the new CMMI suite that the Software Engineering Institute is developing. For reference the CMMI (Capability Maturity Model Integration) is an effort to integrate maturity models for software, system engineering and integrated product development). This book is the one that introduced the CMM to the masses and is what is now called the CMM-SW (SW=Software). It is still a valid reference for software-only organizations from a key process area point of view. As such, it still has value to any organization that is striving to attain CMM level 2 or above. If you're new to the CMM (and there are many who are), this the CMM is five levels of capability maturity, when chaotic organizations assumed to be at level 1. It is not a methodology, so do not expect to find any "how to" information in this book. What you will find in this book is a description of the CMM itself and its structure, and key process areas that need to be in place in an organization for each level of the model. Each key process area has associated key practices. In a nutshell, the CMM is a benchmark. The key to achieving level 2 or above requires a commitment to perform. This book will tell you what processes need to be in place, and what the key practices are for each process, but will not tell you which methods to use. It's dry reading, but there is no ambiguity in the descriptions, which makes this book a valuable reference if you are involved in a company-wide CMM initiative. If your goal is to explore the value and benefits of the CMM, then I recommend A Guide to the CMM by Kenneth Dymond as a better place to start. Despite its age and the CMMI initiatives this book still merits 5 stars for those who are actually implementing the CMM for software.
Rating:
Summary: Recommended for CMM-SW, not a book for exploring benefits
Review: At one time this was the definitive text on the CMM, but is rapidly showing its age because of the new CMMI suite that the Software Engineering Institute is developing. For reference the CMMI (Capability Maturity Model Integration) is an effort to integrate maturity models for software, system engineering and integrated product development). This book is the one that introduced the CMM to the masses and is what is now called the CMM-SW (SW=Software). It is still a valid reference for software-only organizations from a key process area point of view. As such, it still has value to any organization that is striving to attain CMM level 2 or above. If you're new to the CMM (and there are many who are), this the CMM is five levels of capability maturity, when chaotic organizations assumed to be at level 1. It is not a methodology, so do not expect to find any "how to" information in this book. What you will find in this book is a description of the CMM itself and its structure, and key process areas that need to be in place in an organization for each level of the model. Each key process area has associated key practices. In a nutshell, the CMM is a benchmark. The key to achieving level 2 or above requires a commitment to perform. This book will tell you what processes need to be in place, and what the key practices are for each process, but will not tell you which methods to use. It's dry reading, but there is no ambiguity in the descriptions, which makes this book a valuable reference if you are involved in a company-wide CMM initiative. If your goal is to explore the value and benefits of the CMM, then I recommend A Guide to the CMM by Kenneth Dymond as a better place to start. Despite its age and the CMMI initiatives this book still merits 5 stars for those who are actually implementing the CMM for software.
Rating:
Summary: Gives complete perspective of the CMM
Review: Excellant reading for anyone in software, especially for those in software quality and project management. Greatly helps understanding of the software process. Gives the basic concepts of the CMM and in-depth understanding of each KPA. Includes implementation guidance. Also discusses ISO & SPICE project.
Rating:
Summary: Success or failure, your choice
Review: Following the guidelines in this book to attain at least repeatable capabilities can make the difference between failing or succeeding. A good example is the failures of one dot com after another during the past year. At one time the term Prestigious Dot Com evoked envy, not it's an oxymoron. Why this happened in a large part is because the cowboy mentality, and to be fair, there were a fair share of "cowgirls" who can take blame, that said we don't need no stinkin' processes. Well, guess they were wrong. What's sad is this book gives a good benchmark set to compare your capabilities and is ignored or badmouthed. What's sadder is the people who scream the loudest about how terrible the CMM is are the ones who cannot speak intelligently about what it's really about. If you want to be an exception and succeed in this competitive environment you own it to yourself to check this book out. Or fail. Your choice.
Rating:
Summary: Success or failure, your choice
Review: Following the guidelines in this book to attain at least repeatable capabilities can make the difference between failing or succeeding. A good example is the failures of one dot com after another during the past year. At one time the term Prestigious Dot Com evoked envy, not it's an oxymoron. Why this happened in a large part is because the cowboy mentality, and to be fair, there were a fair share of "cowgirls" who can take blame, that said we don't need no stinkin' processes. Well, guess they were wrong. What's sad is this book gives a good benchmark set to compare your capabilities and is ignored or badmouthed. What's sadder is the people who scream the loudest about how terrible the CMM is are the ones who cannot speak intelligently about what it's really about. If you want to be an exception and succeed in this competitive environment you own it to yourself to check this book out. Or fail. Your choice.
Rating:
Summary: A waste of time...
Review: For any organization that is looking to adopt a methodology or improve it software development process, I would recommend against looking at CMM and this book. An organization would be better served by looking at methodologies such as Rational's Objectory (now called Rational Unified Approach) and the corresponding books as it has been real world proven vs academia proven...
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Reading
Review: It really helps to improve Software Development Process, independent of any platform
Rating: 
Summary: The "GUIDE" for CMM
Review: The book is a good one, but I , as a person new to implementing software process improvement in my small organization read this book and it just flew over my head, it needs a HIGH LEVEL of understanding the process - to be precise.
The materials in this book are available as downloadable PDFs in the SEI-CMM site for all the KPAs.
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