This book provides a very thorough treatment of all the Key Process Areas (KPA's), the organizational goals, structures, activities, policies, and training that you will need to address in order to attain CMM levels 2 and 3. In addition, an appendix provides a valuable level-2 preassessment questionnaire (150+ questions) that you can use to gauge your readiness for a real appraisal. For people who may be wondering about getting into the CMM but have never actually been exposed to this sort of stuff before, this questionnaire alone should be worth the price of the book. It is certain to be a major eye-opener in terms of conveying the CMM's almost daunting reach into so many different factors that it identifies with software process improvement. (And that's just level 2!)
The SEI's (Software Engineering Institute) Capability Maturity Model "Guidelines" book has been around for many years, and is considered the definitive guide (in book-form) for the CMM. Nevertheless that book will tell you only what's expected of you, but leave you hanging when it comes to how you actually do it. Dr. Persse on the other hand fills in a wealth of much-needed detail. The SEI may have given us the "business requirements", but Persse provides the "detailed development spec".
Although I would definitely recommend this book, I still believe it could have been greatly enhanced by a few well-placed visuals. For example, having now finished reading through the seven KPA's of level 3, I can visualize the Training KPA as a parallel KPA whose purpose is to educate the organization about the other six. Of these other six KPA's, Organization Process Focus establishes the prerequisite foundation for Organization Process Definition which, in turn, establishes the prerequisite foundation for the remaining four KPA's. Although this relationship unfolds as you read the text, I found myself going back and re-reading sections in order to clarify that image in my mind. A simple introductory visual would have allowed me to nail this important relationship early on.
Visuals notwithstanding, I believe the book deserves five stars for delivering exactly what its title advertises (keyword "implementing"), and for doing so with a thorough, clear, and well-organized presentation.
