Section III: Implementation

Summary

The focus at Maturity Level 5 is on improving processes, but now the organization's set of standard processes (OSSPs) is the controlling document that provides the primary focus. Using the OSSP (which by now must surely reflect true organizational functioning), process improvement can be engineered into the organization in a much more reasonable and efficient manner.

Level 4 focuses on special causes of variation in the processes of the organization. Level 5 tries to find common causes, and fix them, that will result in overall improvements. Measurements are used to select improvements and reliably estimate the costs and benefits of attempting the improvements. Measurements are used to prove the actual costs and benefits of the improvements. These same measurements can be used to justify future improvement efforts.

There are two types of improvement strategies: innovative and incremental. Incremental builds on the foundation of earlier improvements. Innovative tends to introduce more radical and drastic methods of improvement. Both can work in an organization, depending on the culture of the organization and the strength of its leaders , both politically and charismatically. However, most organizations have reported that incremental approaches to process improvement tend to have more long- lasting effects and lead to easier institutionalization.

At Maturity Level 5, the focus is constantly on reviewing and improving the processes, but these improvements must be introduced in a disciplined manner in order to manage and maintain process stability.