The Guidebook is divided into this Introduction, four main volumes (Software Management, Software Configuration Management, Software Development, and Software Process Improvement), and several appendices. Quality assurance is handled by a separate organization. The numbering of individual activities in each volume corresponds to the level of IDEF0 diagrams that are attached (see Section 5).
| Software Management Volume = | Section level (1.x) of IDEF0 diagrams |
| Software Configuration Management Volume = | Section level (2.x) of IDEF0 diagrams |
| Software Development Volume = | Section level (3.x) of IDEF0 diagrams |
| Software Process Improvement Volume = | Section level (4.x) of IDEF0 diagrams |