If you are new to process improvement and are not familiar with either the staged or the continuous representation, you cannot go wrong if you choose one representation or the other. There are many valid reasons to select either representation.

If you have been using a CMM and you are familiar with a particular representation, we suggest that you continue to use that representation because it will make the transition to CMMI easier. Once you have become completely comfortable with CMMI, you might then decide to use the other representation.

Because each representation has advantages over the other, some organizations use both representations to address particular needs at various times in their improvement programs. In the following sections, we provide the advantages and disadvantages of each representation to help you decide which representation is best for your organization.