The Carnegie Mellon Software Engineering Institute (SEI) , a federally funded resreasch and development center, has developed a process maturity framework consisting of best practices that address the development and maintenance of systems and software products and services covering the product life cycle from conception through delivery and maintenance. CMMI assists organizations in evolving from ad hoc, immature processes to disciplined, mature processes with improved quality and effectiveness. It measures maturity on a scale of 1 (chaos) to 5 (standard, repeatable, zero tolerance for error). Booz Allen is certified as CMMI Level 3.