(Kotch, 2004) The level would be characterized by a lack of quality controls and clear managerial standards and objectives, with little supervision and employee 'check ins' in the form of meetings. Level 2: Defined but inappropriately so Project management at this level would set goals, and have a set schedule, but the goal objectives often create chaos because they were inflexible or unobtainable in the entirety. There may be a clear leader, but there is no clear chain of command beneath the leader. Critically, there is an absence of standard operating procedures for management and ways of evaluating performance. Things may go well, occasionally, but as if by chance, and because of individual and sporadic employee competence or brilliance in ways that cannot carry over into regular working methods or other organizational departments.

Level 3: Acceptable

There is clear set of project manager procedures that are reliable. There are standard management practices and a chain of command, an overall set of project objectives, and a sense of responsibility for getting particular jobs done, even if some links in the chain of command might be lacking. Quality control measures exist, and are often met, as the goals are testable. Also, there is a commitment to developing checks for organizational leaders to monitor progress and development,...

These ensure that progress and development in one area carries over, through communication between different project teams, between different organizational areas. Always, there are testable and defined objectives, and tests to determine that flaws can be spotted at all parts of the project process.
Level 5: Superior

All Level 4 objectives are met in a way that is mature and functioning, with superior levels of consistency.

Works Cited

Bemberger, J. (June 1997) Essence of the Capability Maturity Model. IEEE Computer, p. 112-114.

CMM official Website. (2005) Official website of CMM. Retrieved 15 Jan 2005 at http://www.sei.cmu.edu/cmm/cmm.html

Kotch, Christopher. (March 1, 2004) "Bursting the CMM Hype." CIO Magazine. Retrieved 15 Jan 2005 at http://www.cio.com/archive/030104/cmm.html?printversion=yes

People CMM. (2005) University of Massachusetts website: Process Frameworks. Retrieved 15 Jan 2005 at http://www2.umassd.edu/SWPI/processframework/cmm/pcmm.html