maturity

EricWeidner1

Sophisticated, established disciplines often develop "maturity models" as they themselves mature, e.g., Software Engineering Institute's - Capability Maturity Model (CMM)®

For KM, a number of maturity models were developed, possibly prematurely, in the 1999 - 2001 era. Some work has been done since then, but not one has emerged as a robust, de-facto standard. Is it about time that KM begins to demonstrate signs of maturity by having such tools and supporting KM Methodologies?

Let's chat about the merits of developing a robust maturity model for KM.

Specifically, let's chat about some desirable maturity model characteristics, such as:

Q1: Should it be 'staged - sequential such as birth, child, teen, ...' or 'continuous - allows for loopbacks'? But, clearly the number of levels shouldn't be specified, but be flexible (traditional 4 - 6) and let's let the developers see how it unfolds?

Q2: Should the model be not only a more traditional diagnostic, assessment tool, but have prescriptive abilities as well (how you advance to the next maturity level)?

Q3: Should the model itself be flexible to allow for relevant application in a number of different organizational circumstances? If so, what are the common, almost generic components vs unique, industry-specific, if any?

Q4: Finally, if it is worthy of doing, what is a viable way forward?