[throwaway823882]

Maturity models are just theoretical constructs designed to tell you what you aren't doing right. They aren't a roadmap, so their utility is about as useful as an academic research paper. Don't target what your organization should do around a maturity model.

[numbsafari]

I was really into Maturity Models when I was younger. They're easy to understand/communicate.

But, as you say, they suck when it comes to actually achieving anything. The priorities and context are completely absent.

It's funny to see anyone pitch maturity models for DevOps after the folks from DORA crapped all over them in their various works. Their idea of "capability models" is a lot more helpful and maps much more appropriately to outcomes based roadmaps.

[blacktriangle]

And at worst trying to adhere to some maturity model ends up causing disasters. The Richardson Maturity Model for REST is just straight-up wrong. REST == HATEOS, it's not fuzzy logic, its boolean. The RMM is how a bunch of companies got away with half-assed glorified RPC APIs that they marketed as REST.