Evolution of a maturity model – critical evaluation and lessons learned

A system documentation process maturity model and assessment procedure were developed and used to assess 78 projects at 28 different companies over a five year period. During this time the original version evolved into second and third versions based on feedback from industry and the experience gained from the assessments. The changes to the model, maturity levels, key practices, scoring scheme and assessment report, and the reasons behind these changes are analyzed in this paper. The biggest lesson learned is that the key practices' degree of satisfaction and not the maturity levels drive the assessment and provide the key information needed for process improvement.