Progressing from CMMI Maturity Level 3 to Level 5

Progressing from CMMI maturity level 3 to maturity level 5 requires significant effort on the part of any organization. The journey to attaining maturity level 5 is a challenging one for any level 3 organization. What does it take to move up from level 3 to level 5? Why it becomes difficult to implement four more process areas (PAs) when a level 3 organization has already implemented eighteen PAs successfully in its level 3 journey?

First and foremost, attaining level 5 means the organization will need to implement the four PAs which are called "high maturity" PAs, and rightly so. High maturity requires a paradigm shift in the way an organization conducts its business and impacts how the organization performs engineering, project management and process improvement. It follows from here that this paradigm shift requires changes in the organization's thought processes, working styles, conceptual understanding of its employees and  emphasis on "fact-based" management over "feeling-based" management.

Since CMMI level 5 signifies an organization has become "high maturity" it is important to understand what is meant by high maturity. A good way to understand high maturity is assume that high maturity is equivalent to an organization demonstrating the following characteristics:

• Processes must help achieve business expectations. Business strategy drives business objectives which in turn drive and are closely linked to an interrelated set of "business-critical" processes, process performance measures and objectives.
• The capability and actual performance of "business-critical" processes is quantitatively known.
• Day to day work is managed quantitatively using the capability and actual performance data supplemented by usage of quantitative models for predicting and proactively managing process outcomes instead of mere reliance on monitoring and correcting process outcomes.
• Improvements to processes are identified and carried out in case the actual performance of a "business-critical" process doesn't help achieve business expectations.

The second aspect that needs to be appreciated is that the high maturity PAs depend upon the level 2 and 3 PAs for their implementation. In a way level 2 and 3 are foundational elements for high maturity. High maturity is difficult to achieve if level 2 and 3 implementation is weak or not effective. It follows from here that refinement of the definition and deployment of level 2 and 3 PAs is a must before embarking on the level 4 and 5 journey.

The refinements and adjustments to level 2 and 3 PAs will generally require following changes at the minimal:

• A good, hard look at the existing metrics and measurement system (MA -> QPM, OPP)
• Refinement of tailoring guidelines to incorporate tailoring based on quantitative considerations (IPM -> QPM)
• Use of data, baselines and models for project planing, monitoring and control (PP, PMC -> QPM)
• Use of data, baselines and models for process improvement (OPF -> OPM)
• Re-looking into the remaining PAs due to the impact of the above

Another aspect that needs to be considered is the need to have appropriate tools and templates for data collection, quantitative/statistical analysis, metrics-based reporting and action identification and quantitative assessment of impact of action closure. The existing tools and templates for capturing data (such as size, effort, schedule, cost, defects, etc.) may need complete overhaul or significant changes in functionality or usage to enable the implementation of high maturity practices. CMMI model expectations from a high maturity implementation lays heavy emphasis on data quality which may lead to complete overhaul of the operational definition of the both derived and base measures.

Last but not the least, level 4 and 5 implementation needs level 2 and 3 to be sustained. This means that the organization must ensure that the focus is on all the twenty two PAs. Level 4 and 5 achievement in this way gets built upon the level 2 and 3 foundation. It is a known fact that for rising higher and higher the foundation has to become stronger and stronger. Thus a level 5 journey needs higher concentration and significantly higher effort.