The Five Levels of BT Maturity

As organisations identify how far they have travelled in the BT journey, they will need coherent goals to move to the next level. So, in our BT maturity road map, the elements of strategy, process, structure, performance measurement, and culture each span a continuum of five levels:

• Level 1 - Ad hoc and chaotic. The lowest level of maturity is defined by a lack of well-understood practices or repeatability and by compartmentalised relationships.

• Level 2 - Inconsistent and ill-defined. Level 2 means more than one approach is used in the enterprise, with efforts in some IT work groups or departments being more evolved than others.

• Level 3 - Defined and repeatable. At this level of BT maturity, the organisation has progressed to a single set of practices that can be described and repeated either in subsequent time periods or across other parts of the enterprise.

• Level 4 - Managed and monitored. At level 4, the organisation has added quantitative and business-oriented measures to its practices. Based on these measures, it regularly tunes and tailors these practices with periodic review, feedback, and training.

• Level 5 - Optimised and business-integrated. The enterprise now demonstrates shared responsibility for initiatives and adjusts well-defined practices in a deliberate way, moving beyond typical practice to produce specific business impacts.

Click here for graphical representation of Forrester BT model

The BT maturity road map can be applied to any IT domain, charting an evolution toward more rigor and improved results in areas ranging from governance to sourcing to architecture and application maintenance.

Progression along the road map reflects growing synchronisation between technology initiatives and business objectives and uncovers dependencies between these domains. Attainment of level 5 maturity in multiple domains equates to BT - a state that still eludes many firms.

BT Enlightenment

So, moving beyond IT-centric framework assessments is essential if CIOs are going to become the strategic leaders the organisation will need in the coming years. The benefit of using smart technology is too important for this process to be done half-heartedly.

With BT maturity CIOs will be recognised as change agents. Evolving the organisation and their own roles to the highest BT levels, they will help enterprises identify those latent needs that aren't on today's priority list. It will also accelerate the maturity of the firm's business network. As BT reaches the tipping point in enterprises, firms will assess and propel both their enterprise's BT maturity and influence the whole value chain and the way technology management evolves inside partner organisations.

The BT maturity road map represents opportunity for both the CIO and the Business. This is a chance to evaluate the shared objectives of technology use and the IT and non-IT barriers to achieving them. CIOs now need to start thinking outside the traditional IT box and look at the broader business-IT leadership of technology change that successful firms need.

Craig Symons is Vice President and Principal Analyst at Forrester Research writing specifically for CIO professionals. He is a leading expert on deriving business value from IT.