IMM — BASIC WAY TO LOOK AT USAGE
Some education is necessary at this point. If you mention the term capability maturity, or CMM to anyone connected with IT, chances are they will understand, or at least be aware, that the CMM represents a relative scale of capability for development and management of software. The entire concept of the CMM was originated at Carnegie Mellon University in the 1980s under the oversight of a U.S. Air Force funded contract.
This concept is what we are applying to the information and content spectrum. Naturally, with the maturing of technologies for dealing with data and content, BI, and knowledge management, there is now discussion related to a maturity spectrum for IM and BI, an Information Management Maturity Model (IMMM) (sorry).
A significant aspect of any discussion around maturity is that business and other types of organizations, at a grassroots level, are beginning to see that there is a predictable curve of information and content production and usage that can be climbed. After the current and desired states of maturity are known, an enterprise must then develop principles, guidelines, and governance that affect all aspects of IT to drive it up the curve. A survey of the current thinking reveals it to be more focused on increasing levels of sophistication of information usage and embraces more of a business tone.
[MK] Sloane
