EA Maturity Assessment

Through a qualitative and quantitative evaluation of your architecture and organization, Cutter's maturity assessment program provides a relative comparison of the organization to industry norms and identifies strengths and areas needing attention. Cutter's approach to architecture assessment is to first understand the goals and drivers of the architecture program and then to evaluate the initiative in terms of meeting those goals. This leads to the selection and prioritization of specific architectural characteristics and evaluation criteria to apply during the assessment. Specific architectural best practices and processes that lead to meeting the program goals are identified. These should fit the enterprise's environment, culture, structure, processes, organization, and so forth. The overall maturity is based on an evaluation of the criteria, processes, and practices.

Cutter applies an additional important dimension to the evaluation by identifying specific areas of value (or ROI) that can be delivered to the enterprise based on meeting certain maturity targets and criteria. This allows decision makers to understand and evaluate the value that an investment in the architecture program will bring.

The final step in the assessment process is to develop a roadmap for architecture to deliver value and meet the enterprise goals. The roadmap includes specific maturity targets and checkpoints that allow the organization to quantitatively measure the progress of the EA program with regard to specific criteria, processes, practices, and results. The engagement includes a report summarizing the maturity assessment process; the level of maturity of the client organization; strengths, weaknesses, and recommendations; and the roadmap.