Benefits and weaknesses of the two representations
Summary of staged and continuous representation benefits
The table below shows the comparison of benefits between the staged and continuous representation. This is worth learning as it is a good candidate for a question in the exam.
| Staged Representation: Prescribed stages an organisation must go through in an orderly way to improve its development process (i.e. Maturity Levels) | Continuous Representation: No fixed Levels or stages to go through and organisations can select areas from improvement from different categories |
|---|---|
| Pre-defined and proven path | Increased flexibility for prioritising improvements related to organisational objectives. |
| Focus is on organisational improvement | Increased visibility of improvement in a Process Area |
| Overall results are summarised at a Maturity Level | Quick wins can be identified to gain management buy-in |
| Provides consistent and familiar benchmarking | Focus is on risks associated within a particular Process Area |
Summary of staged and continuous representation weaknesses
The table below shows a comparison of the weaknesses of the staged and continuous representations. Again, this is worth remembering as it could be a subject on which a question is asked in the exam.
| Staged Representation: Prescribed stages an organisation must go through in an orderly way to improve its development process (i.e. Maturity Levels) | Continuous Representation: No fixed Levels or stages to go through and organisations can select areas from improvement from different categories |
|---|---|
| Could be a large piece of work | Different processes may be at very differing levels of maturity, thus being difficult to integrate. |
| Focus is on the Level being worked (or lower) | Does not lead to any formal certification |