COBiT Basics > Management guidelines > Maturity mdels

Maturity models

The approach to Maturity Models for control over IT processes consists of developing a method of scoring so that an organisation can grade itself from non-existent to optimised (from 0 to 5). This approach is based on the Maturity Model that the Software Engineering Institute defined for the maturity of the software development capability. Whatever the model, the scales should not be too granular, as that would render the system difficult to use and suggest a precision that is not justifiable.

In contrast, one should concentrate on maturity levels based on a set of conditions that can be unambiguously met. Against levels developed for each of CobiT's 34 IT processes, management can map:

	The current status of the organisation - where the organisation is today
	The current status of (best-in-class in) the industry - the comparison
	The current status of international standard guidelines - additional comparison
	The organisation's strategy for improvement - where the organisation wants to be

For each of the 34 IT processes, there is an incremental measurement scale, based on a rating of "0" through "5." The scale is associated with generic qualitative maturity model descriptions ranging from "Non Existent" to "Optimised".

CobiT is a general framework aimed at IT management and as such these scales need to be practical to apply and reasonably easy to understand. However, the topics of risk and appropriate control in IT management processes are inherently subjective and imprecise and do not need the more mechanistic approach as found in the maturity models for software engineering.