The Capability Maturity Model (CMM) from MIT's Software Engineering Institute (SEI) is a standard that defines five levels of excellence in process management and software development and maintenance. Level 1 is the lowest (success depends on individual brilliance), Level 5 the rarely achieved highest. Level 2 is said to be roughly equivalent to ISO9000.

This book describes how Unisys created and deployed a CMM-based software quality system in their organisation. It is well written and covers its subject material pretty thoroughly in about 300 pages.

It is not completely theoretical work, as it contains practical examples of processes to address the CMM Key Process Areas. A good fraction of the book is given over to plans, worksheets, checklists and document templates that can be used to track an implementation of CMM.

These documents are included (in Microsoft Word 6 format) on a CD- ROM packaged with the book and would be a useful starting point for anyone on the road to implementing CMM.

For use in the UK and Europe the book would benefit from relating CMM Level 2 to ISO9001/TickIT, which is the certification usually sought for software.

The book's author is a keen dancer and she has attempted to draw comparisons between choreography and software engineering. For this reader at least, the analogy was not a strong one. If you can avoid being put off by ballet dancers on the cover this book does contain some gems.

In summary then, this book targets a very small market. If, (as in fact a friend of mine is) you are tasked with implementing a software quality system from scratch, this should find a place of your bookshelf.