The Five Maturity Levels described by the Capability Maturity Model can be characterized as per their primary process changes made at each level as follows:
The structure of the Capability Maturity model is as shown below:
At the Optimizing Level or the CMM level5, the entire organization is focused on continuous Quantitative feedback from previous projects is used to improve the Project Management, usually using pilot projects, using the skills shown in level 4. The focus is on continuous process improvement.
Software project teams in SEI CMM Level 5 organizations analyze defects to determine their causes. Software processes are evaluated to prevent known types of defects from recurring, and lessons learned are disseminated to other projects. The software process capability of Level 5 organizations can be characterized as continuously improving because Level 5 organizations are continuously striving to improve the range of their process capability, thereby improving the process performance of their projects. Improvement occurs both by incremental advancements in the existing process and by innovations using new technologies and methods.