3.2. The Structure of Process Areas

Process areas^[] (PAs) form one of the main structuring elements in CMMI. According to the CMMI glossary, a process area is "a cluster of related practices in an area that, when implemented collectively, satisfy a set of goals considered important for making improvement in that area". Examples of process areas are project planning, organizational training, and causal analysis and resolution. A complete list of the process areas can be found in table 3-1; a description of the content of the different process areas follows in chapter 4; the current chapter discusses their common structure.

^[] In CMM, these were called Key Process Areas (KPAs).

Every process area contains a number of goals^[] to be achieved that are grouped as follows:

^[] CMMI uses the term "goal" only for these specific and generic goals that are a central component of the model. In all other contexts, the term "objective" is used instead.