Guideline to organize, plan, staff, budget, schedule and manage software project work over organizational time, space, and computing environments.

Prescriptive outline for what documents to produce for delivery to client.

Basis for determining what software engineering tools and methodologies will be most appropriate to support different life cycle activities.

Framework for analyzing or estimating patterns of resource allocation and consumption during the software life cycle.

Basis for conducting empirical studies to determine what affects software productivity, cost, and overall quality.