Enterprise Architecture (EA) Maturity Model Assessment

Organizations need to manage change better than ever. Business can only move rapidly if the underlying technology architecture is flexible, data is used to efficiently unlock and use insights, and security standards are rigorously maintained.

This Enterprise Architecture (EA) maturity model assessment template will help you assess where you stand on this important journey. It is also easily customizable so you can deploy it for your own practice.

The assessment is based on an elegant and easy to understand maturity model that the US Department of Commerce developed. They called it the Architecture Capability Maturity Model (ACMM).

(read about maturity models in general here)

As in all capability maturity models fashioned after the SEI CMM, there are 5 levels in this enterprise architecture (EA) maturity model assessment:

1. Initial
2. Under Development
3. Defined
4. Managed
5. Optimizing

There were originally 9 dimensions of measurement. We have added a 10th one for “data”. In todays insights driven world, it is worthy to have data as it’s own dimension so that it gets the right attention.

The 10 dimensions are:

1. Architecture process
2. Architecture Development
3. Business linkage
4. Senior Management Involvement
5. Operating unit Participation
6. Architecture Communication
7. Security
8. Architecture Governance
9. Investment and Acquisition Strategy
10. Data & Insights Management

When you take the assessment, the model shows you an overall level, as well as where you call on each of the dimensions.

Here are the results by dimension:

How to use the Enterprise Architecture (EA) maturity model assessment?

The maturity model can be used in multiple way:

1. Consultants can use it on their website as way for prospective clients to assess their maturity. This becomes a lead generation tool as well.
2. Consultants and architects can also subscribe to Evalinator and offer this tool to clients and their internal stakeholders as they strive to move up the maturity curve.
3. Add more questions under each of the dimensions to make this more detailed and customized to each client
4. Add profile questions so that you can compare the responses across roles and designations. For example, you can see how a project manager feels about the EA maturity versus a technical architect versus a director of applications. That’s very powerful.
5. Add your own description of what the rating bands mean as per your point of view.
6. Add your own feedback text for each dimension and question to explain what the scores mean

The model should only be used to assess your current state and set goals to improve your maturity as applicable. It should not be used as a comparison tool between organizations because each situation is unique.

Next Steps

Go ahead and give the Enterprise Architecture (EA) maturity model assessment template a spin. Email address will be required to see results.

If you want to use the template for your own company, simply sign up for the free trial and deploy the maturity model in as little as 10 minutes!

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Good luck!