TABLE OF CONTENTS This chapter is designed to help the reader understand the basic tenets of Maturity Level 5 in the staged representation of the CMMI. However, because this chapter consists of summaries of the process areas, anyone wishing to get a better idea of the model, no matter which representation is to be used, can benefit from this chapter. Once again, we are not attempting to teach the CMMI. We simply offer a condensed version of the various areas and key points to consider.
At Level 5, an organization has achieved all of the goals of Levels 2, 3, and 4. Level 5 concentrates on improving the overall quality of the organization's processes by identifying common causes of variation (as opposed to special causes of variation at Level 4), determining root causes of the conditions identified, piloting process improvements, and incorporating the improvements and corrective actions into the Organization's Set of Standard Processes (OSSP) or, as appropriate, just the project's defined process. Although innovative, radical approaches to introduce change into an organization are often undertaken, most organizations have found that an incremental approach works better and has longer-lasting results.
There are two process areas (PAs) for Level 5. They are:
Organizational Innovation and Deployment
Causal Analysis and Resolution
Note that there are no additions to the list of generic goals at Level 5 from Level 3. What makes this maturity level different is the two process areas. The generic goals are listed below. We use...
