CM is an essential part of the software process.
It is viewed as a control discipline that brings stability to the evolution of a software product that is developed and maintained by project teams. This is reflected in the widely recognized SEI software process maturity model. In this model, CM is considered a key process improvement area in order to move from level one to level two. A large number of commercial products offer CM support. These products range from stand-alone tools running on multiple platforms, to CM services in environment frameworks and in CASE tools.