The maturity of maturity model research: A systematic mapping study

Context: Maturity models offer organizations a simple but effective possibility to measure the quality of their processes. Emerged out of software engineering, the application fields have widened and maturity model research is becoming more important. During the last two decades the publication amount steadily rose as well. Until today, no studies have been available summarizing the activities and results of the field of maturity model research. Objective: The objective of this paper is to structure and analyze the available literature of the field of maturity model research to identify the state-of-the-art research as well as research gaps. Method: A systematic mapping study was conducted. It included relevant publications of journals and IS conferences. Mapping studies are a suitable method for structuring a broad research field concerning research questions about contents, methods, and trends in the available publications. Results: The mapping of 237 articles showed that current maturity model research is applicable to more than 20 domains, heavily dominated by software development and software engineering. The study revealed that most publications deal with the development of maturity models and empirical studies. Theoretical reflective publications are scarce. Furthermore, the relation between conceptual and design-oriented maturity model development was analyzed, indicating that there is still a gap in evaluating and validating developed maturity models. Finally, a comprehensive research framework was derived from the study results and implications for further research are given. Conclusion: The mapping study delivers the first systematic summary of maturity model research. The categorization of available publications helps researchers gain an overview of the state-of-the-art research and current research gaps. The proposed research framework supports researchers categorizing their own projects. In addition, practitioners planning to use a maturity model may use the study as starting point to identify which maturity models are suitable for their domain and where limitations exist. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.