This report details the maturity model for information governance which will be used to assess the E-ARK Project use cases. The method that guides the application of this maturity model will then be detailed in deliverable 7.5,
A Maturity Model consists of a number of entities, including “maturity levels” (often six) which are, from the lowest to the highest, (0) Non Existent, (1) Initial, (2) Basic, (3) Intermediate, (4) Advanced and (5) Optimizing. Each process can have its own Maturity Model, which expresses quantitatively the maturity level of an organization regarding a certain process. A Maturity Model provides also a way for organizations to see clearly what they must accomplish in order to pass to the next maturity level.
The use of maturity models is wide spread and accepted, both in industry and academia. There are numerous maturity models, at least one for each of the most trending topics in such areas as Information Technology or Information Systems. Maturity Models are widely used and accepted because of their simplicity and effectiveness. They can easily help understanding the current level of maturity of a certain aspect in a meaningful way, so that stakeholders can clearly identify strengths and weaknesses requiring improvement, and thus prioritise what must be done in order to reach a higher level. This can be used to show the outcomes that will result from that effort, enabling stakeholders to decide if the outcomes justify the effort
