The question looks simple. To promote an idea of data management (DM) development, the following questions about DM maturity are to be answered:

  • what is the current level?
  • what is the target level?
  • what is the benchmark to other peers?

But how practically can you answer these questions?

In searching for the answer, I made a brief analysis of COBIT, TOGAF, and DAMA standards, which can be summarized as the following:

These standards differ by the scope of DM components: 

  • DAMA includes 11 (well-known to DM professionals);
  • TOGAF intercepts DAMA on Data & Application architecture, Security;
  • COBIT pays attention to Information Architecture and Data management (Data Governance, Data Ownership, and Security) as part of IT processes.
  • Some of them (TOGAF and DAMA) require maturity assessments, but only COBIT offers a generic maturity model, which is applicable to all IT processes.

So, the preliminary conclusions are:

  • There is no standard technique to make such an assessment depending on company size and other factors (also to be defined);
  • All standards are to be adjusted to each particular company's needs and capabilities;
  • You need to develop your company's DM maturity model as a part of the DM standards adjustment and implementation process.

But still, if I urgently need to draw the attention of the company management to the subject, what do I do?

Use the COBIT maturity model, which proposes 6 levels: 

  1. Non-existent
  2. Initial/ad-hoc
  3. Repeatable but intuitive
  4. Defined process
  5. Managed and measurable
  6. Optimized
  7. * Use the main DM Governance elements, which can be applied to the rest of the DAMA components;

For more information, visit our Data Crossroads Academy site: //academy.datacrossroads.nl/courses/maturity-assessment-as-a-means-to-plan-and-monitor-a-data-management-initiative/lesson/data-management-maturity-assessment-2/

Make the following manual for DM Maturity assessment: