Software Engineering Institute

This report describes the experience of building and evaluating a prototype transition package for organizations implementing processes in support of the Requirements Management key process area of the Software Engineering Institute's Capability Maturity Model for Software. This report presents our conclusions based on evaluation and review of the prototype by users typical of the audience targeted for transition packages. Feedback from these users indicated that they were typical "early or late majority" adopters. They found the transition package helpful for orientation and education as part of implementing requirements management practices in their organizations. This report also describes the foundations in research and practice on which the transition package concept is based. We argue in this report that transition packages, as part of a complete "whole product" that includes training and consulting, can be an effective mechanism for expediting the diffusion, adoption, and implementation of important technologies. Finally, we describe what we now know about creating transition packages and how they might be used.