A method of gathering best practices for various work processes into coherent groupings to facilitate quality and process improvement. Capability Maturity Models® (CMM®) represent a relatively recent step in the evolution of process improvement techniques that enable organizations to repeatedly produce high-quality, complex, software-intensive systems faster and within expected costs. The foundations of this work include approaches to improved quality developed by W. Edwards Deming, Joseph Juran, Walter A. Shewart, and Philip B. Crosby, particularly Crosby's quality management maturity grid.