The CMMI (Capability Maturity Model Integration) is a way  of executing the projects. It is our North Star. The CMMI was originally created by the US Military to overview and access the quality of software projects' delivery and that of the software engineers. They continuously improved the way of delivery, learnt from their mistakes and figured out the best way to go about it and codified which resulted in today's manual.

Today, ISACA’s CMMI models have expanded beyond software engineering to help organisations around the world, in any industry, understand their current level of capability and performance and offer a guide to optimise business results.

An organisation uses CMMI to:

• Improve business performance and/or

• Secure contracts that require CMMI

These goals are achieved by leveraging the CMMI model and working with a CMMI Partner.

CMMI Levels of Capability and Performance

The maturity level or capability level of an organisation provides a way to characterise its capability and performance. Experience has shown that organisations do their best when they focus their process improvement efforts on a prioritised and manageable number of practice areas at a time.

A Culture of Continuous Improvement

Your process improvement goals should always be based on your business objectives. Experience has shown that organisations benefit from achieving a level only when the focus of improvement is on business and performance results and shared objectives. When the focus is on achieving business objectives and improved performance, the performance results occur naturally and typically endure.

Capability Levels

Capability levels apply to an organisation’s performance and process improvement achievements in individual practice areas. Within practice areas, the practices are organized into practice groups labeled Level 0 to Level 3 which provide an evolutionary path to performance improvement. Each level builds on the previous levels by adding new functionality or rigour resulting in increased capability.
 

Capability Level 0: Incomplete

• Incomplete approach to meeting the intent of the Practice Area.

• May or may not be meeting the intent of any practice.

• Inconsistent performance.

Capability Level 1: Initial

• Initial approach to meeting the intent of the Practice Area.

• Not a complete set of practices to meeting the full intent of the Practice Area.

• Addresses performance issues.

Capability Level 2: Managed

• Subsumes level 1 practices.

• Simple, but complete set of practices that address the full intent of the Practice Area.

• Does not require the use of the organisational assets.

• Identifies and monitors progress towards project performance objectives.

Capability Level 3: Defined

• Builds on level 2 practices.

• Uses organisational standards and tailoring to address project and work characteristics.

• Projects use and contribute to organisation assets.

• Focuses on achieving both project and organisational performance objectives.

Maturity Levels

Maturity levels represent a staged path for an organisation’s performance and process improvement efforts based on predefined sets of practice areas. Within each maturity level, the predefined set of PA’s also provide a path to performance improvement. Each maturity level builds on the previous maturity levels by adding new functionality or rigour.
 

Maturity Level 0: Incomplete

Ad hoc and unknown. Work may or may not get completed.

Maturity Level 1: Initial

Unpredictable and reactive. Work gets completed but is often delayed and over budget.

Maturity Level 2: Managed

Managed on the project level. Projects are planned, performed, measured, and controlled.

Maturity Level 3: Defined

Proactive, rather than reactive. Organisation-wide standards provide guidance across projects, programs, and portfolios.

Maturity Level 4: Quantitatively Managed

Measured and controlled. Organisation is data-driven with quantitative performance improvement objectives that are predictable and align to meet the needs of internal and external stakeholders.

Maturity Level 5: Optimising

Stable and flexible. Organisation is focused on continuous improvement and is built to pivot and respond to opportunity and change. The organization’s stability provides a platform for agility and innovation.

Results are speaking for themselves-->

Improved Quality:       31% Average reduction in the defect rate

  Increased productivity: 17% Average improvement in development productivity 

  On-time delivery:       33% Increase in on-time delivery  

Better cost management  48% reduction in scheduled variance

AGILE IS  

• 
  A high-trust way of collaborating
  

• 
  A commitment to a core set of agile values;
  

• 
  A focus on business value;
  

• 
  An assumption of good intention;
  

• 
  An agreement to share information openly and transparently;
  

• 
  Agreeing that  NO JOB IS BENEATH YOU;

Self-organising.

                       CMMI , Agile and DevSecOps, A white paper.

AGILE WITH SCRUM AND CMMI , working together to create true organisational agility.

HELPING ORGANISATIONS SCALE AGILE ACROSS THE ENTERPRISE , A SELECTED ARTICLE BY KIRK BOTULA

THE CMMI RESOURCE CENTRE LINK FOR FUTURE REFERENCE