The initial level of CMM is characterized by chaos and few processes, if any, are defined. An organization with an initial maturity level is chaotic, disorganized, and success depends on individual effort and heroics. Good outcomes are generally considered miracles. Each of the maturity levels can be measured.

We would like to gauge whether PP is developed at the initial maturity level. Consider the following checklist:

Absence of software development plan

Absence of engineering guide

Absence of agreed-upon process model

Absence of confidentiality

Absence of senior management involvement

Continual change of requirements

Inexperience (poor staffing)

Absence of prototypes

Increasing size of software system

Inadequate support

For each of the above checklist items, score the degree of assessment of each item by assigning a real number value v, where v >= 0 and v <=1, and the higher scores (lower scores, respectively) reflect weaknesses (strengths, respectively). Let N be the number of the checklist items. Derive the initial level maturity score for your project PP by summing up all the individual scores for each checklist item and diving by N.