What is a Level 5?

The concepts of process maturity and general process improvement have been significantly driven by the capability maturity model and the definitions of the key process areas comprised in that model. During the timeframe 1994 through 2001, the characteristics of a major Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) program evolving from a Level 1 to a Level 5 have been captured and archived so that CSC could better understand the implications and general impacts of high levels of process maturity. Data representing cost, management approaches, process improvement, product attributes, and general observations were collected and analyzed. The goal of the analysis was to capture the underlying attributes of an organization that has attained and sustained high-maturity performance over a long period of time. The analysis yielded seven dominant attributes of the Level 5 organization being identified, as supported by the 8 years of observation. This paper describes the major attributes of a Level 5 organization as contrasted with a less mature organization. This paper also describes the seven attributes and the supporting data used to derive the list of attributes. The attributes partially answer the question "What is a Level 5?"