Operational Excellence - The Practice of Cloud System Administration - page 406

The term “maturity” indicates how formally or informally an operational aspect is prac-
ticed. The formality ranges from ad hoc and improvised, to having a documented process,
to measuring the results of the process, to actively improving the system based on those
measurements.
The CMM defines five levels:
• Level 1, Initial: Sometimes called Chaotic. This is the starting point for a new or
undocumented process. Processes are ad hoc and rely on individual heroics.
• Level 2, Repeatable: The process is at least documented sufficiently such that it
can be repeated with the same results.
• Level 3, Defined: Roles and responsibilities of the process are defined and con-
firmed.
• Level 4, Managed: The process is quantitatively managed in accordance with
agreed-upon metrics.
• Level 5, Optimizing: Process management includes deliberate process optimiza-
tion/improvement.
Level 1: Initial
At this level, the process is ad hoc. Results are inconsistent. Different people do tasks in
different ways, usually with slightly different results. Processes are not documented. Work
isuntrackedandrequestsareoftenlost.Theteamisunabletoaccuratelyestimatehowlong
a task will take. Customers and partners may be happy with the service they receive, but
there is no evidence-based determination at this time.
Level 2: Repeatable
Atthislevel,theprocesshasgonefrombeingadhoctorepeatable.Thestepsaredefinedin
such a way that two different people can follow them and get the same results. The process
is documented with no missing steps. The end results are relatively consistent. This is not
to say that errors don't happen; after all, nothing is perfect. Because there is little measure-
ment at this level, we may not know how often work is defective.