ABSTRACT
Maturity models have been developed largely for quality assurance within the engineering field. However, they have been employed in a variety of applications by the authors to help with managing change. They have also been combined with training needs analysis models to enhance the power of such methods. The first and most famous maturity model was the Process Maturity Model, which evolved into the Capability Maturity Model. This model was commissioned from the Software Engineering Institute from Carnegie Mellon University by the US military. The model assumes that as an organisation matures, the software process becomes better defined and more consistently implemented throughout the organisation. As organisations mature, so the training needs of the staff of that organisation change. Generally, more advanced organisations require more skills from their staff. The origins of the maturity model itself lie in a request to provide the Federal government with a method for assessing the capability of their software contractors.
