How to Achieve Level 5

Maturity for QA and Testing

Process
Posted In | ISO standards, Quality assurance | Last Updated:
"November 3, 2015"

This article explains what are CMM levels and how to

achieve these CMM levels for QA processes,
explained with best examples.
For any process whether it is a QA process, development
process or any non-technical process, there are levels of its
maturity. By levels of maturity we mean that the level of
formality and processes improvement, like ad-hoc
processes to formally defined steps to managed result
metrics to optimization of the processes.
CMM (Capability Maturity Model) is process based
model which is used to assess the maturity of an
organization for different domains. Although this model is
normally termed as the software development model but
eventually it was used for other processes as well like QA
and testing.
It has 5 different levels of maturity from 1 to 5. As we go
towards level 5 from 1, variability and inconsistency
reduces. Below are the details of 5 levels. Here we will go
through the 5 CMM levels with respect to QA
process and what all output/result is expected for each
level to mature a QA/testing process and reach up to level
5.

Level 1 Ad-Hoc: Unplanned, unsystematic,

and inconsistent
As the word Ad-Hoc states: unplanned, unprepared, at
this level significance is not given to planning, following
processes, guidelines and standards. There is no
standardized & consistent way of doing any task. The only
thing which is important at this level is meeting the
timelines, irrespective of the quality of the end product and
deliverables.
As there are no pre-defined standards and processes, same
task is done in different ways by different people.
And this becomes even more unsystematic and inconsistent
if same task is done differently next time.
Example
QA The example would be that in an organization
although QA is 1 of the phases in a product life cycle but
there are not any standard & no process defined, no
templates for QA deliverables like plan, strategy, scenarios,
and cases are standardized. Even if these are documented

then all team members have their own way of doing it and
not consistent at all.

Level 2 Control: initiate defining processes

at high level:
Solution to the problem which we saw at Level 1 of
unavailability of QA processes, methodology & standards
would be to have all these in place. The standards and
processes are not only finalized but also are well
documented, so that those can be re-used by any one for
similar task.
Example
QA Define overall QA process and methodology for
different types of testing like functional, data, performance
etc. Define the role of a QA engineer in projects life cycle
and prepare templates for deliverables in each phase. Not
only define and prepare rather share within team

Level 3 Core Competency: Come up with a

generalized process for wider audience and
domains:
At this level 3, people are motivated to follow the
standards and processes defined at level 2. For this first of
all the processes need to be conveyed to all people and
need to identify what all skills are needed to use those
effectively and efficiently and also if any training is required
for that and then motivated and supported to follow those
standards and processes. Here people having more
experience share their knowledge with others.

Example
QA Conduct webinars and training sessions to let people
get acquainted about the newly defined QA process and
standards and motivate them to make use of those during
their day to day projects life
------------

Level 4 Predictable: Measure the processes

At this level processes defined at level 3 are measured
quantitatively. This is done to control the effort required on
any task. Based on this quantitative analysis, processes
can be adjusted if needed, and that to without degrading
the quality of the end product. Analysis is done by dividing
complete process into smaller sub-processes and then
quantitative techniques are applied on these sub-processes
and as per the result, sub-processes are adjusted if
needed. This level is called predictable as based on prior
experience; we can predict the process quantitatively and
make use of that for the upcoming processes.
Example
QA Performing regular audits would be a good idea here.
This can include to check if teams are actually following the
processes defined, using the standard templates, adhere to
methodology or not.

Level 5 Innovative: Continuous

Improvement
At this level, innovative ways are identified to further
improve the pre-defined processes and standards. This is a
continuous process. For this our own processes are

watched and re-engineered continuously by adding new

tools technologies, by continuous studies and by keeping
ourselves updated with new information in the market. This
can also be achieved by benchmarking other organizations
and learn from them and try to improve our process by
adding new innovations to it.
Example
QA Keep on improving the methodology, processes
defined based on prior audit results.
Based on some studies it has been concluded that the
organizations at level 1 may spend $1000 for any particular
task then for the same task organization at level 5 needs to
spend $10.
After going though all 5 levels mentioned above, looks like
reaching up to level 3 is difficult. Once it achieved then
next levels are not too far and difficult to achieve