Introduction to the

Open Digital Maturity Model

The Open ROADS Communitys digital maturity assessment tool

and how members can use it to accelerate their digital transformation

08/2017
 An Introduction to the Open Digital Maturity Model

Release Note

This whitepaper applies to Version 2 Release 9(V2R9) of Open Digital Maturity Model
and to all subsequent releases and modifications until otherwise indicated in new
version. Therefore, the version and release date should always be noted.

Update note:
Version Published date
Introduction to the Open Digital Maturity Model 06/2017
Version 1 (V2R7)
Introduction to the Open Digital Maturity Model 08/2017
Version 2 (V2R9)

Copyright 2017 Open ROADS Community. All rights reserved.

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 An Introduction to the Open Digital Maturity Model

Table of Contents

1 Executive Summary ............................................................................... 4

2 Introduction ............................................................................................ 5
3 The ODMM Categories, and Their Rationale ......................................... 7
3.1 Strategic Dynamism ........................................................................... 8
3.2 Digital Culture, Talent & Skills .......................................................... 10
3.3 Optimal Customer Experience.......................................................... 13
3.4 Data Centricity.................................................................................. 15
3.5 Service Innovation & Optimized Delivery .......................................... 17
3.6 Digital Technology Leadership ......................................................... 19
4 A Note on Weighting and Scoring ........................................................ 23
5 ODMM Assessment Procedures and Practices ................................... 25
5.1 Broad Assessment Guidelines ......................................................... 25
5.2 Assessment Roles and Responsibilities ........................................... 26
6 Assessment Outcomes and Post-assessment Directions .................... 28

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 An Introduction to the Open Digital Maturity Model

1 Executive Summary

This paper provides members of the Open ROADS Community with an introduction to the
Open Digital Maturity Model (referred to in this document as the ODMM) and its use as an
assessment tool to measure digital maturity.
The sections of this paper describe the following aspects of the ODMM and its outcomes:
1. The composition of the ODMM, and the purpose and rationale behind each of the six
assessment Categories;
2. The architecture of the Question Categories, and how Metrics and KPIs are used to
determine ODMM scores;
3. The scoring methodology and procedures, and how the scores relate both to
absolute and aspirational digital maturity, and
4. Examples of strategic direction that the organization can take following an ODDM
assessment.

This document has two goals. Firstly, it aims to introduce the holistic framework through
which the Open ROADS Community assesses the digital industry landscape, and
determines the assets and capabilities that digital businesses need to successfully compete
in it. Secondly, it seeks to prepare the reader, at a high level, for what is required of an
organization undergoing an ODMM assessment, including:
1. The organizations framework or strategic initiative(s) surrounding digital
transformation
2. The ideal roles and responsibilities of individuals who should participate in the ODMM
assessment
3. The broad categories of data, KPIs and qualitative insight needed to answer ODMM
assessment questions completely

Open ROADS Community members who wish to conduct an ODMM assessment for their
organization can contact the Open ROADS Community to request a formal assessment, a
list of accredited assessors.

Further information about the ODMM, including a deeper explanation of its categories,
metrics and KPIs, please contact us by email: enquiries@openROADScommunity.com.

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 An Introduction to the Open Digital Maturity Model

2 Introduction

The Open Digital Maturity Model (ODMM) is a key resource for the Open ROADS
Community. The ODMM is a tool that enables organizations/enterprises to benchmark their
current digital status against their aspirations and other relevant parties.

The intended outcome of an ODMM assessment are measurable goals that will help
the assessed organization accelerate its digital transformation progress to become a
Digital Service Provider (DSP).

The ODMM uses six domains, known as Categories, to benchmark an organizations current
digital status. These are:
1. Strategic Dynamism
2. Digital Culture, Talent & Skills
3. Optimal Customer Experience
4. Data Centricity
5. Service Innovation & Optimized Delivery
6. Digital Technology Leadership

Based on the outcome of an ODMM assessment, the assessed organization can then define
a pathway to become a DSP in the mode its strategy and aspirations dictate. It also provides
a basis for further Capability Mapping and transformation implementation projects (although
these fall outside the remit of the ODMM).

The ODMM itself consists of:

1. A secure scoring tool that allows an accredited assessor to score the assessed
organization across metrics and generate an assessment against its own aspirations,
and other benchmarks
2. Accreditation process and management, defined in the ODMM Assessor
Accreditation document
3. Quality control processes, defined in the ODMM Assessor Accreditation document
4. Roles, obligations relating to those roles and other terms of use defined in the other
governance documents: ODMM Model for Change Control, ODMM Model for Data
Disclosure, ODMM Obligations on Assessors and Businesses document

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 An Introduction to the Open Digital Maturity Model

The series of ODMM Governance documents referred to above is available from the Open
ROADS Community.

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 An Introduction to the Open Digital Maturity Model

3 The ODMM Categories, and Their Rationale

The ODMM identifies the steps required for an enterprise to achieve its digital business
aspirations, and ranks its current capabilities along six dimensions, or categories, developed
by a cross-functional Working Group of Open ROADS Community members. Each Category
(known in the ODMM taxonomy as Level One) comprises a critical suite of digital capabilities:
a group of relevant processes, practices, capabilities and assetswhich include technology,
human capital, knowledge and financeto be assessed and measured. Together, the six
Categories represent the successful DSPs portfolio of its technology, talent, processes and
strategies.

The group of capabilities and processes within each Level One Category is further broken
down into Level Twolargely statements of organizational attributes; this is represented in
the chart below:

The ODMMs Third Level consists of individual measurable practices and assets that fall
within each respective attribute. Below this are a list of questions to be asked in the
assessment process (referred to as metrics) and specific data points (referred to as KPIs)
which are referred to as Level Four.

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 An Introduction to the Open Digital Maturity Model

The model assumes that the various categories and sub-categories each has a different
level of importance in contributing to the digital maturity of the organization. Therefore, each
is assigned a different weighting in the model, which is applied to the absolute metric score
to which it relates. These weighted scores are aggregated at each Level and rolled up, to
create a single Digital Maturity score. The assessment process and mechanisms are
discussed in more detail in Chapters Four and Five.

The remainder of this chapter consists of detailed description of the first three levels of the
ODMMs taxonomy and their rationale, organized by Level One Categories.

3.1 Strategic Dynamism

This Category describes the collection of capabilities that help an organization define its
agility through its planning and governance activities. In the ODMM taxonomy, Strategic
Dynamism is defined by three Level Two attributes, described below.

Digital Vision: Leading digital businesses are able to redefine not only themselves, but also
their markets. This is achieved through the execution of a clear strategy, which in turn allows
them to shape demand through compelling value propositions, influence (and often disrupt)
their entire ecosystem. They do so by addressing explicit and implicit needs of their
customers and users comprehensively, throughout the entire experience lifecycle. In the
ODMM, a digital business strategy is defined as follows:

Level-three Definition and Rationale

Category

Clarity of purpose The degree to which the organization has outlined a credible
digital vision and strategy and articulated the role(s) it intends
to play in the digital ecosystem.

Digital leadership How the senior management team takes a digital first
perspective, by embracing a Founders Mindset and
modern digital practices and technology.

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 An Introduction to the Open Digital Maturity Model

Balanced and The extent to which digital is appropriately, and

integrated digital comprehensively, integrated into the organizations strategy,
strategy while simultaneously maintaining legacy practices.

Cross-industry The degree to which the organization uses an open and

engagement expansive approach to engage with new players outside its
traditional relationships, to support its overall corporate
strategy.

Pursuit of new A firms ability to identify and exploit value chains in its
value immediate and adjacent industries in new ways, and disrupt
processes to create entirely new value chains.

Business Agility: Digital leaders are able to manage business complexity, building and
continually improving their operating models, balancing outside and inside perspectives
while adapting dynamically to the business needs. They do so through fact-based decision-
making, organization alignment and dependency governance, and focusing their business
outcome. The ODMM defines Business Agility as having the following components:

Level-three Definition and Rationale

Category

Fact-based The use of data and analytics to inform business decisions,

strategic decision and the availability and utility of data, which allows leaders to
making make fast and effective decisions.

Strategic portfolio The idea of making decisions and applying appropriate

management investment policies to effectively manage the digital services
portfolio in order to accelerate adoption of digital practices and
technology.

Coordination The organizations ability to coordinate its resources,

capability processes and structure in order to operationalize its strategy.

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Finance & Investment Model: This category has been developed on the assumption that
digital business leaders can best achieve their desired business outcomes by leveraging
their ecosystem and managing risk through incremental financial exposure.

Level-three Definition and Rationale

Category

Financial structure The organizations financial structure should support sufficient

investment in the required levels of service development and
delivery to support the vision.

Investment model The organization prioritizes digital initiatives in the budgeting

process.
Its investment and governance model for allocating and
managing resources is aligned with the principles of strategic
dynamism and digital leadership.

Value model There is a clear process for translating new operational KPIs
into financial metrics to align the management accounting and
financial accounting systems, and thus build value for the
organization.

3.2 Digital Culture, Talent & Skills

This Category measures the tools, skills and processes needed to empower a digital
workforce, by assessing how an organization changes the way its team members work
and learn to complete its digital transformation, through the three sub-categories
described below.

Team Agility: Organizations need to use their digital, and digital-enabled, assets to create
nimble, responsive, project teamsbecause digital business is radically accelerating the
speed with which work is organized and executed. The following categories describe this
notion of Agility:

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 An Introduction to the Open Digital Maturity Model

Level-three Definition and Rationale

Category

All-online The degree to which information is leveraged and applied

Information across the organization for efficient and agile practices. This
accessibility and category assesses the ways that business processes are
transparency designed for data usability. The extent to which data and
business processes are designed for digital channel
availability, accessibility, privacy and security, to support
informed decision-making and outcomes linked to business
objectives.

Empowerment and The degree to which team members can explore, innovate,
experimentation test and apply new and alternate approaches to decision-
making processes.

Multi-skilled teams Evaluating how an organization provisions success metrics for

with common teams comprised of different skill-sets, functions and
goals and shared geographies. These include socializing common goals and
responsibility shared responsibilities, and digital tools and resources which
manage and track deliverables in real time.

Mindset, Learning & Development: Organizations share knowledge through digital tools,
to enhance digital skills and 'sensibilities. Organizations must keep digital skillsets sharp to
remain competitive, by maintaining and enhancing the following capabilities:

Level-three Definition and Rationale

Category

Incentives Cultures role in acquiring, disseminating and applying digital

skills, through the mechanisms (such as career progression
paths and remuneration) which firms use to encourage team
members to execute digitally.

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 An Introduction to the Open Digital Maturity Model

Workforce Understanding how well organizations use digital tools and

planning processes for analyzing talent demand and supply dynamics,
which allow them to leverage digitally-enabled talent
acquisition, retention and mobilization across the
organization.

Learning and The degree to which an organization has digital initiatives

development aligned to its continuous learning and development
processesand supports those processes digitally.

Certification and Measuring the extent to which firms apply digital

accreditation mechanisms to forge external affiliations, certify internal
processes and learning content.
Understanding the ways a firm uses certification to develop
talent and improve overall digital skills. Measuring the extent
of formal training resources within the organization, such as
co-certification, learning programs and coaching

Evidence-based This category assesses the way firms encourage and

management provision the use of digital tools for the analysis of past
culture performance in order to plan for future success.

Digital Workplace: Organizations need to maximize performance by employing digitally-

enabled teams, because the new 'world of work emphasizes flexibility and mobility, and
getting top talent requires a rethink of the workplace. The ODMM defines the Digital
Workplace as follows:

Level-three Definition and Rationale

Category

On-demand virtual The ability of an organization to employ results-based

teams management for virtual teams.

Social enterprise Evaluating how an organization enables and encourages the

use of social media to communicate, mobilize ideas and

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 An Introduction to the Open Digital Maturity Model

share information.

Flexible work Understanding how well an organization uses digital

arrangements connectivity and resources to create work environments
unconstrained by stipulated working hours, specified spaces,
physical location or rigid policies.

Crowd-sourcing The degree to which an organization leverages its digital

expertise ecosystem (of known and unknown participants) to invite and
encourage new ideas, and suggestions to enhance its
existing products, processes and business models.

On-demand and Assessing the ways the organization leverages resource

gig workforce pools, which are virtually available, and/or assembled for
specific projects or periods.

3.3 Optimal Customer Experience

This category assesses how organizations use customer insights to personalize and
improve customer experience. The ODMM assumes that the best digital businesses do
this through a focus on customer centricity, and experience governance.

Customer Centricity is defined by how well the experience delivered through the
companys products, primary services and support services meets the ROADS criteria, and
aligns with the rational and emotional wants and needs of its individual customers. Three
key aspects are considered:

Level-three Definition and Rationale

Category

Personalization The degree to which an organization tailors products and

services to individual needs.

Proactivity Methods, processes and tools employed to meet customer

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 An Introduction to the Open Digital Maturity Model

needs in advance of them having to make contact.

Customer visibility The ways in which customers can access and control
and control aspects of the services they receive.

Experience Governance includes the internal processes an organization uses to align all
its functions to deliver optimal customer experience in an Omni-channel context. This
objective is achieved by embedding customer experience across the organizations
operations, while using tools which allow the business to generate a single comprehensive
view of each customers unique experience, needs, preferences, behaviors and
circumstances. The following categories comprise the elements of Experience Governance:

Level-three Definition and Rationale

Category

Cross-functional All functions within the organization have a strong

accountability for appreciation of customer experience and strive to make
CE improvements.

Experience-driven The end-to-end experience delivered to end-users is a key

design factor in the design and introduction of new products and
services.

Customer The organization has access to, and acts upon, the feedback
experience offered by voice of the customer.
measurement

Single customer A single comprehensive view of the customers status and

view behaviors.

Partner alignment Bringing the organizations partners customer experience

management practices and standards in line with its own.

Omni-channel Omni-channel management is seen both as a tool for

management expanding and rationalizing customer touchpoints, and also

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to continuously improve customer experience levels across

all of them.

Brand Vigilance ensures that the organization articulates a well-considered, clear and
coherent brand promise across all engagements, which aligns with customer and employee
needs and associated aspirations. Furthermore, the services and experiences offered and
delivered by the company support and, ideally, reinforce the brand messaging.

Level-three Definition and Rationale

Category

Brand promise An assessment of the organizations ability to define its brand

and promotion valuesand execute on them

Brand alignment The degree to which articulated brand values are aligned
with the needs and aspirations of the firms stakeholders:
customers and employees.

3.4 Data Centricity

This category assesses the degree to which a business bases its operational processes
on analytics, and how it maximizes the value of the data it generates. Value is
determined both in terms of analysing its data to improve operational efficiency, and in terms
of identifying and exploiting revenue opportunities from the data itself. Data Centricity also
refers to the ways in which an organization seeks to develop and maintain an integrated
data platform, which allows access to consistent information across the business
organization.

The data centricity of an organization is evaluated along three sub-categories:

Data Strategy and Governance describes the way an organization treats its data as a

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valuable resource: carefully controlling it throughout a defined lifecycle to ensure consistent

understanding and quality. This is also reflected in the procedures that it has in place to
ensure regulatory compliance for data security and privacy. The Level-three parameters
which measure this are as follows:

Level-three Definition and Rationale

Category

Information The manner in which personal information is handled

security and correctly to fully comply with local regulatory requirements
privacy and ensure cyber security.

Quality and master An assessment of the processes in place which ensure that
data management data-based deliverables fully meet requirements. A single
source of the truth is identified and managed for reference
data and identifying master data within the organization.

Common This describes a common definition of all information

information model concepts valued within the organization. This Model should
be used throughout the organization and economically meets
its evolving needs.

Data lifecycle This is a defined lifecycle for all data in the organization,
management which assigns clear accountability and ownership at each
stage.

Data Valorisation is the aspect of data centricity that measures how actively the
organization seeks to create additional revenue streams through external monetisation.
Leading digital businesses regard the data they generate on their customers and operations
as a business opportunity, as well as an asset that can be used to run their businesses better.
The organizations ability to monetize its data is further examined in these Level-three
categories:

Level-three Definition and Rationale

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 An Introduction to the Open Digital Maturity Model

Category

Accountability, The degree to which profitable monetization of data is a goal

ownership and of the organization, with resources allocated to exploit Telco
value Data as a Service (TDaaS) opportunities.

Monetization How the organization receives revenue from external data

monetization.

Data Exploitation describes how the organizations leaders and team members make
decisions based on data, supported by strong analytics capability, as measured by the
following categories:

Level-three Definition and Rationale

Category

Analytics How the organization accesses strong analytics capabilities

such as machine learning or data science.

Data capture and How easily the organization integrates new sources of data
aggregation into its existing data management and analytics platforms.

Data-driven The extent to which decisions are based upon relevant data,
decision making not intuition, which generates quantifiable improvements in
operational performance.

3.5 Service Innovation & Optimized Delivery

In this category, an organization is assessed on its ability to manage its relationships with
its ecosystem partners in order to increase its own revenue. Service Innovation and
Optimized Delivery (SIOD) also looks at how the organization improves the speed and
efficiency of new service creation. SIOD allows multiple speeds to co-exist in an
organizations operations, combining iterative and experimental service development

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 An Introduction to the Open Digital Maturity Model

processes that increase service integration and continuous improvement efforts on existing
operational practices using a combination of iterative and experimental approach. Fast,
flexible, fast and iterative service development in a digital ecosystem is critical success
factor for digital service providers.

Service Innovation focuses on how organizations improve their service creation processes
and lifecycle portfolio management, through human-centric design, experimentation based
on real-world feedback, and ecosystem collaboration.
It is described in the ODDM as having the following elements:

Level-three Definition and Rationale

Category

Ideation A standardized and well-supported idea generation and

experimentation process.

Ecosystem and The service or process to build and operate a marketplace or

Value Chain platform where a variety of enterprises come together to
Management collaborate, providing a single go-to destination for
customers / clients.

Seamless service The adoption of intelligent and flexible service integration

integration practices and technologies to deliver services that operate
seamlessly within the enterprise and its wider digital
ecosystem.

Service lifecycle A clear strategy and well-defined, innovation-centric

management processes that govern the management of digital products
and services from creation, through evolution, to retirement.

Business rollout A clear strategy and well-defined processes that govern the
business (or non-technical) aspects of new digital service
introduction and development.

Optimized Delivery describes the future mode of operation for a digital service provider, or

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other digitally-transformed business. Such organizations integrate their operating model in

the wider digital ecosystem of which they are part.

Level-three Definition and Rationale

Category

DevOps in cloud The adoption of modern digital practices and technologies,

environments which operate on flexible and reliable cloud environments
and allow self-service. These include agile development
practices, DevOps, site reliability engineering, continuous
integration and continuous delivery.

Joint agile delivery A clear strategy and defined processes which govern
streamlined multi-party delivery of services.

Full stack The capability to provide a single full stack monitoring

monitoring (single platform that allows a common view of IT capabilities across
pane of glass) the organizations silos. The integrated stack correlates
incidents and alerts between infrastructure, application and
real user layers.

Feedback and Real world production information is the basis for operational
analytics-based support responses.
responses

3.6 Digital Technology Leadership

This Category allows the ODMM to assess how the organization leverages the capabilities
of powerful, readily accessible technologies in order to deliver unique business capabilities
in response to constantly changing market situations.

Enterprises need to approach their digital transformation initiatives by having a clearly

defined, business aligned IT strategy and architecture that adopts new digital technologies
and well-defined policies all underpinned by foundational digital technologies. The role of
enterprise architect is to facilitate digital transformation ensuing consistency, effectiveness

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 An Introduction to the Open Digital Maturity Model

and continuous business alignment whilst delivering business outcomes.

Digital Foundational Technology: This category measures the ways an organization

closes the gap between current technology capabilities, and those that the organization
needs to achieve its digital business aspirations.

Level-three Definition and Rationale

Category

Cloud computing The adoption of modern infrastructure including cloud,

and network NFV/SDN, PaaS, iPaaS and containerization.
virtualization

Mobile, IoT and The adoption of mobile, IoT and edge computing technology
edge computing to meet digital service requirements. The use of models,
sensors and protocols (such as MQTT) that support the high
volume and number of devices in an IoT environment.

Data management The use of data management technologies to collect,

technology correlate and analyze large volumes of data and generate
useful insights.

APIs, The use of SaaS applications, applications using APIs and

Microservices and adopting a Microservices-based approach to participate in a
SaaS wider digital ecosystem.

Orchestration and The adoption and application of orchestration and

choreography choreography technologies to automate processes, including
the use of model-driven orchestration to ensure consistent
service delivery across resource domains.

Robotics and The use of robotics and process automation tools to perform
process manual, time-consuming, and rule-based tasks to improve
automation operational efficiency, data security and compliance.

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Digital Technology Operations: Digital Technology Operations covers the lifecycle of

service creation and management, from development, through release and deployment, to
assurance and lifecycle management, all at a scale and reliability enabled and required by
digital technologies.

Digital technologies enable many new techniques for advanced infrastructure and service
management, significantly altering the traditional risk profiles associated with critical lifecycle
functions. These techniques must be embraced and embedded into operations practices in
order to realize the benefits of the underlying technologies; adopting the technologies
without changes to operational practices significantly limits the value these technologies can
provide.

Level-three Definition and Rationale

Category

Automated The use of operational technology and data to provision a

operations fully automated, self-healing, scalable and reliable
operational environment.

Reliability The use of software engineering practices on cloud scale

engineering operations in order to realize higher levels of reliability and
recoverability.

Digital Technology Adoption & Policy: Successful adoption of new technologies along
with well-defined and clearly communicated policies ensures effectiveness of using these
technologies. This category covers following digital technologies:

Level-three Definition and Rationale

Category

Open standards Strategy and policies relating to the leveraging of open

and platforms source, open standards, and open platforms for ICT agility.

Security The use of security technologies and procedures as a key

enabler of digital initiatives, and as an enabler of an open

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 An Introduction to the Open Digital Maturity Model

enterprise strategy.

Digital identity and The provision of a single identify framework (including single
authentication sign on and federated identity) to ensure consistent identity
and authentication across digital services.

Application The use of Application Release Automation (ARA) tools to

release manage development artifacts across the service lifecycle, to
automation automate environment modeling, coordinate and improve
application release quality and velocity.

Technology The degree to which the organization has clearly defined and
roadmap implemented technology strategies, architecture, roadmap
and governance structures which enables agility and ensures
co-ordination at scale.

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4 A Note on Weighting and Scoring

As discussed in the last chapter, the goal of the ODMMs taxonomy is to create a
comprehensive set of measurable practices and assets that will, through an assessment
process, specifically identify the areas where an organization has achieved a successful
level of digital maturityand the areas where it has not. Each of these assessed areas are,
through the assessment process (see below), assigned a value for the organization, in whole
numbers from one to ten.

By translating the responses to qualitative questions about current IT infrastructure and

digital development strategies into quantitative scores, or by ranking specific operational
KPIs against established best practices, the ODMM helps an organization determine:
1. Areas of focus: specific technologies, business strategies and cultural organization
aspects which require attention and development in the assessed organization, in
order to meet its digital transformation goals.
2. Magnitude of business opportunity: The score created by the assessment
process also places the assessed organization in relative position to leading digital
businesses. With appropriate benchmark data on the profitability of those
benchmarked leaders, the ODDM provides the assessed organization with a specific
measure of the additional profitability that can be achieved by closing the gap
between the two.

Again, as discussed, each of the various categories and sub-categories in the ODMM
contributes to the digital maturity of the organization in different ways, and have different
relative impact on that maturity. This is achieved by imposing a weight on each category
item at every level. It is important to remember that weights are independent of scores,
but intersect as follows:
1. Each Level-three category is given a score, generated by one of two ways:
1. The assessor will collect one or more precisely measurable KPIs that relate to
that category, and translate them into a measured input, or
2. A score will be determined through the ranking of responses to qualitative
questions, should KPIs not be available.
2. Once recorded, the component scores that comprise a specific Level-three category
are each multiplied by a weight (a percentage up to 100%) and combined to generate

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a composite Level-three score.

3. This weighting and aggregation process is repeated for all the Level-three categories
that relate to a Level Two attribute category, and again from Level Two to Level One
and completing the rolling up scoring process to generate a Digital Maturity score.

The ODMM has been constructed as a relatively sophisticated mathematics-verified and

connected model. This model allows expert assessors to compile observable data in a
specific assessment and convert them into cross-comparable scores, which are in turn
modified by weightings that are standard, across all assessments.

The Open ROADS Community is responsible for safeguarding and managing the ODMM
tool, including all definitions of categories and the value of all weightings. The Open ROADS
Community Advisory Board is the senior governing authority over the structure, components
and mechanics of the ODMM assessment tool. Authorized Open ROADS Community
participants are entitled to undertake ODMM assessments and/or for their organizations to
be assessed, and awards accreditation to qualified ODMM assessors, as well as oversees
the maintenance of those credentials.

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5 ODMM Assessment Procedures and Practices

5.1 Broad Assessment Guidelines

An ODMM assessor uses the collection of categories to assess the digital status of an
assessed organization by the process described above: inputting values (scores) derived
by interpreting qualitative and quantitative data gathered through interviewing and surveying
members of that organization. The weighting process described in the last chapter will result
in a score that represents the entitys current digital status.

The ODMM assessment provides a basis for further capability mapping and transformation
implementation projects. This falls outside the immediate remit of the ODMM itselfbut the
Open ROADS Community is committed to connecting this assessment tool to such other
operational redesign and optimization processes as digital capability mapping and change
management projects. Thus, the assessed entity can then use the ODMM assessment to
engage other Community members or ecosystem partners to define its pathway to
accelerate its transformation towards its identified strategic end-state.

While the Open ROADS Community allows accredited ODMM assessors to implement their
own specific assessment processessuch as in the ways that they gather question
responses and collect KPI datathere are generic phases that each assessment process
should follow (described in the table below). The Open ROADS Community maintains best
and worst practices, which are described in other ODMM Governance documents. Broadly
speaking, however, the essential ODMM best practice is that all participating parties
(individual assessors and the experts and managers interviewed in the assessed
organization) should invest time to familiarize themselves with all the categories of the
ODMM (and ensure that both the assessor and the assessed have achieved broad
agreement on interpreting its definitions, metrics, and KPIs.

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Phases 1 Pre- 2 Preliminary 3 Data 4 Results

Engagemen assessment Collection Generation
t Briefing and Data and Review
Request
Activities 1. Map out the 1. Explore, identify 1. The assessed 1. Assessor to
scope of the and agree the entity will provide complete the review
assessment metrics/KPIS that the data points of the data and
will be requested agreed upon with create the
2. Identify the from the entity the assessor (in assessment
key being assessed step 2) report(s)
stakeholders
involved in the 2. Begin 2. Assessor to
assessment and preliminary review the data
explain the preparation for the they are given
ODMM and its assessment under the ODMM
processes guidelines.

3. Ensure all 3. This can be a

stakeholders continuous,
understand the iterative process
ODMM and are
committed to it

4. Preliminary
feedback from
the entity to be
assessed

5.2 Assessment Roles and Responsibilities

If an ODMM accredited assessor wishes to conduct an ODMM assessment, the assessor

should notify the ODMM sub-group that a new assessment is commencing and inform them
of the proposed timeline for it.

The accredited assessor then engages in the ODMM assessment, using the guidelines
outlined in 5.1 above. In the case where an assessor needs to adapt the ODMM tool, these
changes must be mutually agreed upon and stakeholders in both the assessor and the
assessed organizations must be able to provide justifications for the adaptations through a
formal change request.

After the ODMM assessment is completed, the assessor is responsible for providing

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 An Introduction to the Open Digital Maturity Model

evaluative feedback to the ODMM sub-group, including justifications for adaptations of the
ODMM tool and ideas on how to improve is and maintain its relevance.

The assessor organization should appoint individually accredited assessment professionals

for conducting the assessment (as mentioned, accreditation procedures are available in the
ODMM Governance document library). In general, assessors are subject matter experts in
one or more of the Categories, either through training or professional experience. The
assessor team will typically work with the digital transformation team of the assessed
organization to identify and recruit interview candidates and knowledge managers within the
organization to assist in the completion of the assessment.

Representative job titles and/or responsibilities of the assessed respondents are for each
category, are described in the table below (it is important to note, however, that it is likely
that one person is unable to answer all the questions within each ODMM assessment
category).

ODMM Category Respondent job titles

Strategic Dynamism CEO, CSO, HR Director

Digital Culture, Talent & Skills
Optimal Customer Experience
Data Centricity
Service Innovation & Optimized
Delivery
Digital Technology Leadership
HR Director, Chief Innovation Officer,
Application Project Manager
CTO, CMO, Customer Care Officers
CMO, CIO, Chief Digital Officer
COO, CIO/CTO, relevant Product Managers
Information Security Manager, IT and/or
Operations Manager

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 An Introduction to the Open Digital Maturity Model

6 Assessment Outcomes and Post-assessment Directions

Conducting an ODMM assessment will provide the leaders of an organization with a

comprehensive and quantifiable view of the current state of play of its digital assets and
capabilities, and this is turn will help them in further defining their digital transformation
strategies. It will also, at a high level, quantify the distance (in terms of obtainable revenue
margin) between their current business operations, and where it would like to be. The ODMM
thus provides many tangible benefits for the assessed organization in terms of accelerating
their digital business progress:
1. Granular identification of the precise digital technology platforms and strategies in
which they need to invest or integrate into existing operations
2. Prioritization of the areas of operational and business culture change that the
business needs to implement
1. Particularly, in the optimization of management and leadership practices that
will help develop a flexible, nimble and innovative organization
3. Areas of alignment and integration between the organizations own customer
experience management processes and those of its partners, suppliers and other
ecosystem partners.

Of course, the ODMM also provides the inverse view for the assessed business: the specific
areas of operations, infrastructure and strategy where the company has actually achieved
an optimal performance level (and thus can redirect investment and change projects
accordingly).

There is an additional value that the ODMM provides. An assessment creates deep,
measurable insight across the organization which creates a platform upon which further
and more precise digital maturity acceleration projects can be conducted.

The assessed entity has ownership over the scores and other data created in the ODMM
assessment process. This data can only be released to Open ROADS Community members
with the explicit permission of the assessed entity. This can be done at any time before,
during or after an assessment. There are several benefits for doing so, both for the
assessed organization, and the Community as a whole:

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 An Introduction to the Open Digital Maturity Model

1. Capability Mapping and Transformation Implementation Projects: After

completing the ODMM assessment, the assessed entity may wish to share their
scores and the insight from them with relevant service organizations in order to
enable them to produce proposals around capability mapping which will accelerate
their transformation towards becoming a Digital Service Provider (DSP).
2. Benchmarking Development: In order to retain the relevance of the ODMM and
maintain its sustainability, assessed entities may want to give their scores, in an
anonymized format, for benchmarking and ODMM tool development purposes. This
is both a Community development responsibility, and an activity with specific benefits
for the assessed organization, which can translate benchmarks into more detailed
technology adoption or human capital change management programs.
3. Financial Investment Modelling: The ODMM provides a high level gap analysis
between broad best-in-class digital business performance and the assessed
companys own performance. However, more rigorous analysis of technology and
process capabilities is required to determine the ROI of a digital transformation
initiative.

(The End of Paper)

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