You must make three selections to apply CMMI to your organization for process improvement:

1.   Select a part of the organization.

2.  Select a model.

3.  Select a representation.

Selecting the projects to be involved in your process improvement program is critical. If you select a group that is too large, it may be too much for the initial improvement effort. The selection should also consider how homogeneous the group is (i.e., whether they all are software engineers, whether they all work on the same product or business line, and so on).

Selecting the model to be used depends on the areas your organization is interested in improving. Not only must you select a constellation (e.g., Development, Acquisition, or Services), but you must also decide whether to include any additions (e.g., IPPD).

The process of selecting the representation to be used has some guidelines because of how CMMI models are built. If your organization likes the idea of maturity levels and the staged representation, your improvement roadmap is already defined. If your organization likes the continuous representation, you can select nearly any process area or group of process areas to guide improvement, although dependencies among process areas should be considered when making such a selection.

As the process improvement plans and activities progress, other important selections must be made, including which appraisal method should be used, which projects should be appraised, how training for personnel should be secured, and which personnel should be trained.