What is the major difference between Level 2 and Level 3 of the Capability Maturity Model?

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What is Capability Maturity Model (CMM)?
CMM's five levels of maturity for software processes
CMM vs. CMMI: What's the difference?
What is the overall difference between CMM Level 3 and Level 2?
What is the difference between capability level and maturity level?
What are different levels of capability maturity model?
What is Level 3 maturity?
Why is CMMI Level 3 important?
What are the components of CMMI 2.0 model structure any 3?

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Capability Maturity Model (CMM) is a methodology used to develop, refine maturity of an organizations software development process. It is developed by SIE in mid 1980. It is a process improvement approach.

To assess an organization against a scale of 5 process maturity levels. It Deals with the what processes should be implemented & not so much with the how processes should be implemented. Each maturity level comprises a predefined set of process areas called KDA (Key Process Area), these KDA – Goals, Commitment, Ability, measurement, verification.

Levels of Capability Maturity Model (CMM) are as following below.

1. Level One : Initial – Work is performed informally.
A software development organization at this level is characterized by AD HOC activities (organization is not planned in advance.).

2. Level Two : Repeatable – Work is planned and tracked.
This level of software development organization has a basic and consistent project management processes to TRACK COST, SCHEDULE, AND FUNCTIONALITY. The process is in place to repeat the earlier successes on projects with similar applications.

3. Level Three : Defined – Work is well defined.
At this level the software process for both management and engineering activities are DEFINED AND DOCUMENTED.

4. Level Four : Managed – Work is quantitatively controlled.

Software Quality management – Management can effectively control the software development effort using precise measurements. At this level, organization set a quantitative quality goal for both software process and software maintenance.
Quantitative Process Management – At this maturity level, The performance of processes is controlled using statistical and other quantitative techniques, and is quantitatively predictable.

5. Level Five : Optimizing – Work is Based Upon Continuous Improvement.
The key characteristic of this level is focusing on CONTINUOUSLY IMPROVING PROCESS performance.
Key features are:

Process change management
Technology change management
Defect prevention

What is Capability Maturity Model (CMM)?

The Capability Maturity Model (CMM) is a methodology used to develop and refine an organization's software development process. The model describes a five-level evolutionary path of increasingly organized and systematically more mature processes.

CMM was developed and is promoted by the Software Engineering Institute (SEI), a research and development center sponsored by the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) and now part of Carnegie Mellon University. SEI was founded in 1984 to address software engineering issues and, in a broad sense, to advance software engineering methodologies. More specifically, SEI was established to optimize the process of developing, acquiring and maintaining heavily software-reliant systems for the DOD. SEI advocates industry-wide adoption of the CMM Integration (CMMI), which is an evolution of CMM. The CMM model is still widely used as well.

CMM is similar to ISO 9001, one of the ISO 9000 series of standards specified by the International Organization for Standardization. The ISO 9000 standards specify an effective quality system for manufacturing and service industries; ISO 9001 deals specifically with software development and maintenance.

The main difference between CMM and ISO 9001 lies in their respective purposes: ISO 9001 specifies a minimal acceptable quality level for software processes, while CMM establishes a framework for continuous process improvement. It is more explicit than the ISO standard in defining the means to be employed to that end.

CMM's five levels of maturity for software processes

There are five levels to the CMM development process. They are the following:

Initial. At the initial level, processes are disorganized, ad hoc and even chaotic. Success likely depends on individual efforts and is not considered to be repeatable. This is because processes are not sufficiently defined and documented to enable them to be replicated.
Repeatable. At the repeatable level, requisite processes are established, defined and documented. As a result, basic project management techniques are established, and successes in key process areas are able to be repeated.
Defined. At the defined level, an organization develops its own standard software development process. These defined processes enable greater attention to documentation, standardization and integration.
Managed. At the managed level, an organization monitors and controls its own processes through data collection and analysis.
Optimizing. At the optimizing level, processes are constantly improved through monitoring feedback from processes and introducing innovative processes and functionality.

The Capability Maturity Model takes software development processes from disorganized and chaotic to predictable and constantly improving.

CMM vs. CMMI: What's the difference?

CMMI is a newer, updated model of CMM. SEI developed CMMI to integrate and standardize CMM, which has different models for each function it covers. These models were not always in sync; integrating them made the process more efficient and flexible.

CMMI includes additional guidance on how to improve key processes. It also incorporates ideas from Agile development, such as continuous improvement.

SEI released the first version of CMMI in 2002. In 2013, Carnegie Mellon formed the CMMI Institute to oversee CMMI services and future model development. ISACA, a professional organization for IT governance, assurance and cybersecurity professionals, acquired CMMI Institute in 2016. The most recent version -- CMMI V2.0 -- came out in 2018. It focuses on establishing business objectives and tracking those objectives at every level of business maturity.

CMMI adds Agile principles to CMM to help improve development processes, software configuration management and software quality management. It does this, in part, by incorporating continuous feedback and continuous improvement into the software development process. Under CMMI, organizations are expected to continually optimize processes, record feedback and use that feedback to further improve processes in a cycle of improvement.

One criticism of CMM is that it is too process-oriented and not goal-oriented enough. Organizations have found it difficult to tailor CMM to specific goals and needs. One of CMMI's improvements is to focus on strategic goals. CMMI is designed to make it easier for businesses to apply the methodology to specific uses than with CMM.

Like CMM, CMMI consists of five process maturity levels. However, they are different from the levels in CMM.

The process performance levels of CMMI are the following:

Initial. Processes are unpredictable and reactive. They increase risk and decrease efficiency.
Managed. Processes are planned and managed, but they still have issues.
Defined. Processes become more proactive than reactive.
Quantitatively managed. Quantitative data is used to craft predictable processes that fulfill stakeholder needs based on more accurate measurement of adherence to business goals.
Optimizing. The organization has a set of consistent processes that are constantly being improved and optimized.

The Capability Maturity Model Integration combines various software development maturity models into one process.

Learn how Agile principles applied to company culture can also help improve software product quality.

This was last updated in April 2022

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What is the overall difference between CMM Level 3 and Level 2?

At maturity level 3, processes are well characterized and understood, and are described in standards, procedures, tools, and methods. A critical distinction between maturity level 2 and maturity level 3 is the scope of standards, process descriptions, and procedures.

What is the difference between capability level and maturity level?

Process maturity levels classify organisations according to their ability to control their various processes. Process capability levels classify the performances of (some) processes of a certain process area done by an organisation, organisational department, or project.

What are different levels of capability maturity model?

The Five Levels of the Capability Maturity Model Integrated (Carnegie Mellon 1999).

What is Level 3 maturity?

CMMI Level 3 – An appraisal at maturity level 3 indicates an organization is performing at a “defined” level. At this level, processes are well characterized and understood and are described in standards, procedures, tools, and methods.

Why is CMMI Level 3 important?

Maturity Level 3 is achieved when an organization successfully completes a SCAMPI A appraisal (Standard CMMI Appraisal Method for Process Improvement). Maturity Level 3 verifies that: That Daffodil's processes and quality are at par with the globally accepted standards and nomenclatures.

What are the components of CMMI 2.0 model structure any 3?

The basic components of the CMMI 2.0 model are: Practice Areas, Views (containing Capability Areas, Categories for Capability Areas) , Practice Groups, Practices and Informative Materials.