This page contains suggestions and good practices for carrying out a maturity assessment using a maturity model.

Maturity assessments cover some or all of the following dimensions: People, Methods, Technology, Standards and frameworks, Processes, Information, and Institutional setting. It is often necessary to create an assessment team including people with expertise in the different dimensions. It is also important to identify the different parts of the organisation responsible for the implementation of the capability or standard. The assessment exercise requires familiarity with the definitions of the maturity levels and dimensions. The purpose of the maturity assessment is not only to assess the current level of maturity, but also to decide what is the target level of maturity. The assessment discussions could also include creating timetable and identifying the main steps needed to reach the target level.

The following are recommendations for preparing and carrying out the maturity assessment: 

• Identify who should be in the assessment team, involving representatives of all relevant parts of the statistical organisation, and people with relevant knowledge of the different maturity dimensions. Normally this will be a mixture of middle and senior managers, and technical experts
• Invite the assessment team members to a meeting. Ideally, this should be face-to-face, and should be scheduled for at least half a day
• Start the meeting by explaining the purpose of the assessment, and the maturity model approach (ideally, participants should read this wiki in advance)
• Allow some time (e.g. 15 minutes) to make sure that participants understand the definitions of the maturity levels and dimensions
• Allow enough time to discuss, agree and document the results of the maturity assessment including:
• The capability or standard for which the assessment is being carried out
• The current maturity level of the organisation
• The target level and the deadline to reach the target  
• The main steps and requirements to move from the current level to the target level
• Use the assessment to prepare a "Roadmap", i.e. a strategic plan to move to the target level by the deadline. Where possible, this should take account of experiences and lessons learned from other countries or organisations.