Capability‐Maturity Assessment as Performance Improvement: A case study

• Published in: Performance improvement (International Society for Performance Improvement) Vol. 58; no. 4; pp. 6 - 12
• Main Authors: Palmer, Thomas J., Bolin, Aaron U.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Silver Spring International Society for Performance Improvement 01.04.2019
• Subjects: Case studies
• ISSN: 1090-8811; 1930-8272
• DOI: 10.1002/pfi.21849

A capability‐maturity assessment (CMA) answers the following two questions: (1) What are the characteristics that high‐functioning organizations share? (2) How can those processes be leveraged for a maturing organization? As a process‐improvement tool, a CMA provides a standard against which an organization targeted for improvement can be compared. For organizations just beginning the CMA journey, an internal and informal assessment is a low‐resource alternative to a formal assessment. This case study details the CMA informal methodology that we adapted from the Software Engineering Institute (2010) for use with the Military Pay and Personnel department of the U.S. Navy. Results of repeated assessments over three years show gradual improvement in organizational maturity along with a simultaneous increase in performance and a decrease in overall resources expended.