Many organizations with an existing process improvement initiative are also considering software product line adoption. Managers and technical leaders in these organizations often ask how they can build on their process improvement work and reconcile these two significant change initiatives.

This technical note addresses product line adoption in the context of an organization that is using the Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) models to guide its process improvement effort. Details are provided to show how selected CMMI process areas provide a basis for certain important software product line practices.