Why Capability Maturity Models are decision-making tools for uncertain times

This article is written by Dr Judy Lundy, MBA Director, Edith Cowan University; Dr Uma Jogulu, Senior Lecturer, Edith Cowan University; Professor Robyn Keast, Southern Cross University.

• The problem: Escalating volatility and uncertainty in public sector operating environments make continuous improvement increasingly necessary but problematic.
• Why it matters: Increased service delivery demands and policy quality expectations from stakeholders including increasingly diverse and informed citizens and communities need to be met.
• The solution: Use an appropriate capability maturity model to help build service delivery and policy-setting capability, improve quality and inform better decision-making

If ever there was a need for public sector organisations to be on the forefoot – it is now. Geopolitical tensions, significant and more frequent climatic events, ageing assets, and increasingly diverse and demanding citizens, combined with the ongoing effects of the Covid-19 pandemic have created escalating volatility and uncertainty for the public sector, making continuous improvement increasingly necessary but problematic.

Robust Capability Maturity Models (CMMs) have emerged as critical tools helping organisations improve their processes and procedures, overall performance and drive necessary changes and enhancements.

CMMs can be extremely useful tools to provide a structured framework to see where you are, where you want to be and help inform strategies to address gaps.

After outlining their purpose and structure, this article presents two CMMs drawn from different fields and developed within (or used by) the Australian public sector to display their benefits, including how they can provide a guiding framework to assist public service organisations to assess the current status of their policies and services and plan for continuous improvements. It finishes with a look at how they add practical value to policy and service outcomes.

What is a CMM?

CMMs are structured frameworks that are perfectly placed to bridge the what happens/what should happen gap. They can assist organisations in undertaking several activities including:

• self-assessing their strengths and weaknesses in a particular area of focus, such as risk management, information assurance and cyber security or digital maturity, and in areas of 'soft management' such as D&I, inter-organisational collaboration and innovation;
• identifying divisional or organisational current maturity levels and helping set realistic maturity-level targets;
• planning for continuous improvement by analysing gaps and barriers and prioritising steps to help reach target maturity levels.

CMMs are commonly set out in matrix formation with the dimensions of the area of focus on one axis and the levels of maturity on the other. Most CMMs comprise four to five maturity levels ranging from a beginning, partially evolved, to a consolidated/integrated stage, culminating in a leading practice stage, allowing for the development of a road map to support future capability goals.

The following table overviews two existing CMMs developed for and/or being used by public sector organisations and some of the key benefits these are helping to realise in these organisations.

Why they work

Specific benefits have been noted for the above CMMs, but in general, CMMs can be extremely useful tools to provide a structured framework to see where you are, where you want to be and help inform strategies to address gaps which can assist public sector agencies optimise service delivery to the communities they serve.

Additionally, because well-constructed CMMs provide clear descriptions of what evolving levels of maturity look like, they can also be very helpful in providing guidance for developing and educating stakeholders and building confidence in performance. This helps provide a “language” to inform discussions about performance levels which can in turn help facilitate consultation and collaboration with different stakeholders.

So, if you’re interested in improving quality, reducing costs, or informing better decision-making in your agency, you might want to see how an existing CMM in your area of focus might help you achieve your service delivery and policy-setting goals.

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