An advancement scale is a structured progression of maturity levels in a capability maturity model that indicates how entities evolve capabilities over time.
The Core Tenets of an Advancement Scale
- Defines a logical progression of maturity stages
- Provides a roadmap for incremental capability improvements
- Enables benchmarking of current vs desired maturity states
- Supports planning and prioritizing capability investments
Why Advancement Scales are Important to Business Consultants
Advancement scales provide business consultants with a powerful framework for assessing and evolving their clients’ organizational capabilities.
When developing a custom maturity model for a client, consultants must design an advancement scale that reflects the progressive stages of maturity in the capabilities most critical to that client’s goals.
A well-structured advancement scale gives consultants a way to diagnose their client’s current maturity levels, identify capability gaps, and lay out a stepwise approach for driving improvements. This enables consultants to guide their clients in developing realistic roadmaps and investment plans aligned to the client’s strategic objectives. Advancement scales make it easier to communicate how proposed initiatives map to higher maturity states and business value.
Advancement scales also facilitate benchmarking so clients can compare their maturity against peers and best practices. The scale provides a common language for stakeholders to discuss capability priorities and tradeoffs. This allows consultants to build buy-in and calibrate progress across large transformation programs.
Example of an Advancement Scale in Use
- A manufacturing client wants to improve its supply chain agility. The consultant designs a maturity model with levels ranging from ‘Ad Hoc’ processes to ‘Optimized’ processes. This scale helps assess the client’s current distribution capabilities and structure initiatives to achieve leading-edge agility.
- A software firm aims to adopt DevOps practices. The consultant establishes a four-stage advancement scale from ‘Initial’ to ‘Cross-Team Automation’. This scale gives a roadmap for evolving the client’s software delivery maturity.
- A bank seeks to enhance its risk management capabilities. The consultant creates risk management maturity stages from ‘Reactive’ to ‘Anticipatory’. This scale provides a blueprint for the client to methodically elevate risk practices.
Advancement Scale Synonyms
- Maturity scale: A progression of maturity levels for evolving capabilities.
- Maturity ladder: A stepped sequence of maturity states to guide capability improvements.
- Maturity progression: The ordered advancement through levels of maturity.
- Capability staircase: An incrementally ascending set of capability stages.
Advancement Scale Antonyms
- Static scale: A fixed scale without a dynamic progression.
- Discrete levels: Maturity stages viewed in isolation rather than in progression.
- Unstructured roadmap: An arbitrary sequencing of capability improvements.
- Capability hierarchy: Levels arranged by rigid importance rather than maturity progression.
Other Closely-Related Terms
- Maturity level: A position on the maturity scale denoting a capability state.
- Capability dimension: A competency area in a model with its own maturity progression.
- Maturity assessment: Evaluating an entity’s current stage on the advancement scale.
- Maturity gap: The differential between current and target maturity states.
