The interdisciplinary approach governing the total technical and managerial effort required to transform a set of customer needs, expectations, and constraints into a product solution and support that solution throughout the product’s life.
This includes the definition of technical performance measures, the integration of engineering specialties towards the establishment of a product architecture, and the definition of supporting life-cycle processes that balance cost, performance, and schedule objectives.

1. This glossary is from Appendix C of Technical Report CMU/SEI-2002-TR-004.
2. ® CMMI is registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office by Carnegie Mellon University.