Formal Maturity

Introduction

The formal maturity model is inspired from the capability maturity model (cited here¹), except it’s applied to an individual. This doesn’t mean the same as informal maturity, that is beyond the bounds of the choir and a bit immature to regulate. Rather, it’s about maturity in the context of process management, which is a field of business administration and systems engineering.

Differences

Maturity is when an individual keeps to long-term, consistent (yet flexible) planning, where short-term interests are put into context of long-term ones. The day is planned properly, with their habits and methods codified and practiced. Learning isn’t done on a whim, but is in a careful framework upon which it improves.

Immaturity is characterized by short-term thinking, where little planning goes into the day. Not much personal pracitce or habits are formalized, things are taken and done as they come up. When problems arise, immaturity dictates that all resources go to solving that problem, which is handled informally either by an immediate plan of action that often breaks down as its pursued.

Maturity Levels

This is a general summary of the maturity levels. It’s not comprehensive on the criteria.

Level 1 - Consequence of Bad Parenting

Processes are unidentifiable, and chaotic. The individual does things as they come, frequently passes personal deadlines (if they exist) and misallocates resources, either overcommiting or undercommiting them.

Marked by behaviours such as procrastination, being late, etc. Assesments are unrealistic, and typically overrun. Priorities are undefined.

ex. Getting a school assignment, procrastinating on it using unreal assessments (able to finish it in a day), doing it last minute, and then having the assignment become overdue.

Level 2 - Repeatable

Processes are identifiable, and measured. This includes using tools like an alarm clock, schedule, journal. They have goals for what they’re pursuing, and have established routines. Work is planned, and the person knows what they’re doing, and they’ve had experience in what they’re doing developing a process for it.

Things are repeatable, so things are consistently done on target with realistic assessments of past performance. As quoted:

An effective process can be characterized as practiced, documented, enforced, trained, measured, and able to improve. ¹

It’s still fairly informal. Documentation is scattered across different domains and tools. Process improvement is typically “revolutionary” in large batches, rather than miniscule improvements. Things either work or they don’t.

ex. Getting a school assignment, setting days aside to complete it, writing an outline of the assignment, completing it, and handing it back on time.

Level 3 - Defined

Processes are documented and integrated into a holistic system. Things are meticulously standardized, with procedures, verification, and completion criteria outlined. Verification in this case means having your things reviewed. Progress can be easily gauged.

Processes are managed in the context of other processes.

ex. Getting a school assignment, fitting it into your schedule system and using other processes (such as computer use, i.e. storing it in this file, backing your work up, writing to-dos for it) with defined/standardized phases (research and writing process) with tangible goals outlined, the process is done according to a quality standard in editing, and a rubric is followed (critera). This is all done in accordance to documentation of how you handle assignments.

Level 4 - Managed Level

Performance is quantitative and statistically controlled. Productivity and quality are measured, and processes are tuned to match acceptable constraints. Things that change are identified and corrected, and performance is controlled and predictable.

ex. Getting school assignment, do same thing as level 3, except you meticulously measure your own productivity, and make sure to keep yourself within your selected limits.

Level 5 - Optimizing

Processes in the entire organization are actively improved. You can identify weaknesses, and strengthen them on the spot. Data on effectiveness of proccesses is used to strengthen other processes. Objectives are made and reviewed.

Improvements are done both incrementally and through large changes in method.

Things are cutting edge, your tools are almost molded to your life.

ex. Getting school assignment, same as level 4, but constant process improvement, review, quick improvements to changes in process use (using grammarlyfor automatic editing, typing, using a research site), and carrying on this process this to the next assignment.

Footnotes