Standard : Learning is treated as progress

Purpose and Strategic Importance

This standard ensures teams view learning as a legitimate and valuable outcome. By recognising experiments, failed hypotheses, and customer insights as progress, teams reduce fear of failure and create a culture of continuous improvement.

It supports our policy "Learning as Progress". Without this focus, teams risk mistaking activity for success, leading to waste and frustration.

Strategic Impact

• Encourages safe experimentation and innovation
• Reduces waste by identifying ineffective ideas early
• Builds resilience and adaptability through validated insights

Risks of Not Having This Standard

• Teams pursue output volume over value
• Repeated investment in ineffective solutions
• Culture of fear and low psychological safety

CMMI Maturity Model

Level 1 – Initial

• Learning outcomes are not tracked or valued

Level 2 – Managed

• Some learning outcomes documented, often reactively

Level 3 – Defined

• Teams define learning objectives alongside delivery goals

Level 4 – Quantitatively Managed

• Learning outcomes measured and used to guide investment decisions

Level 5 – Optimising

• Learning is institutionalised, shared across teams, and drives systemic improvement

Key Measures

• % of initiatives with explicit learning objectives
• Number of hypotheses validated or invalidated
• Instances of pivots based on validated learning