Organizations can achieve progressive improvements in their maturity by achieving control first at the work group level and continuing to the most advanced level—organization-wide continuous process improvement—using both qualitative and quantitative data to make decisions.

Since improved organizational maturity is associated with improvement in the range of expected results that can be achieved by an organization, maturity is one way of predicting general outcomes of the organization’s next work. For instance, at maturity level 2, the organization has been elevated from ad hoc to disciplined by establishing sound service management. As the organization achieves generic and specific goals for the set of process areas in a maturity level, it increases its organizational maturity and reaps the benefits of process improvement. Because each maturity level forms a necessary foundation for the next level, trying to skip maturity levels is usually counterproductive.

At the same time, recognize that process improvement efforts should focus on the needs of the organization in the context of its business environment and that process areas at higher maturity levels can address the current needs of an organization or work group.

For example, organizations seeking to move from maturity level 1 to maturity level 2 are frequently encouraged to establish a process group, which is addressed by the Organizational Process Focus process area at maturity level 3. Although a process group is not a necessary characteristic of a maturity level 2 organization, it can be a useful part of the organization’s approach to achieving maturity level 2.

This situation is sometimes characterized as establishing a maturity level 1 process group to bootstrap the maturity level 1 organization to maturity level 2. Maturity level 1 process improvement activities may depend primarily on the insight and competence of the process group until an infrastructure to support more disciplined and widespread improvement is in place.

Organizations can institute process improvements anytime they choose, even before they are prepared to advance to the maturity level at which the specific practice is recommended. In such situations, however, organizations should understand that the success of these improvements is at risk because the foundation for their successful institutionalization has not been completed. Processes without the proper foundation can fail at the point they are needed most—under stress.

A defined process that is characteristic of a maturity level 3 organization can be placed at great risk if maturity level 2 management practices are deficient. For example, management may commit to a poorly planned schedule or fail to control changes to baselined requirements. Similarly, many organizations prematurely collect the detailed data characteristic of maturity level 4 only to find the data uninterpretable because of inconsistencies in processes and measurement definitions.