Whose Maturity is it Anyway? The Influence of Different Quantitative Methods on the Design and Assessment of Maturity Models

This paper presents results from an ongoing empirical study that seeks to understand the influence of different quantitative methods on the design and assessment of maturity models. Although there have been many academic publications on maturity models, there exists a significant lack of understanding of the potential impact of (a) choice of the quantitative approach, and (b) scale of measurement on the design and assessment of the maturity model. To address these two methodological issues, we analysed a social media maturity data set and computed maturity scores using different quantitative methods prescribed in literature. Specifically, we employed five methods (Additive, Variance, Cluster, Minimum Constraint, and RASCH) and compared the sensitivity of measurement scale and maturity stages. Based on our results, we propose a set of methodological recommendations for maturity model designers.