So, you’re building an ITAM program! There are so many moving parts and areas that may require thoughtful and calculated attention. How do you know where to spend your time and energy? When building something as critical and expansive as an ITAM program, it is essential to methodically assess a diverse set of attributes that make up a diverse program. This process helps you formulate a strategy and focus your energy on areas that provide meaningful results. To create a sustainable, value-added program that remains flexible and adaptable in this dynamic industry, you need to understand where your program strengths lie and where there is opportunity to improve. This allows you to be agile and responsive and concentrate your attention on program areas that generate real value.

There are three key components in developing a valuable assessment: assessment attributes, program maturity scaling, and scoring methods. A comprehensive program assessment reveals how well your ITAM program is functioning and gives you the substance needed to begin building the program to fit the specific needs and goals of your organization.

In ITAM, a thorough program maturity assessment evaluates people skills and their commitment, process aptitudes, technological depth, and management attributes. Here are examples of program attributes from each category that can be used to effectively assess your program maturity.

• People – Leadership Support, Plan Execution, Team Competence, Stakeholder Engagement, Project Delivery, Program Delivery
• Process – Process Integration, Continuous Improvement, Process Change, Asset Procurement, Software Compliance, Asset Deployment, Asset Disposal
• Technology – Hardware Controls, Software Controls, Asset Ownership, Reporting and Metrics, Systems Controls, Documentation
• Management – Best Practices, Communications, Education, Financial Management, Compliance, Policy Management, Vendor Management

Open discussions about what is important for your organization are encouraged. Critical questions like, “How strong is leadership support for our ITAM program?” or “How well do we manage our disposal process?” can provide a realistic view of your program’s maturity for each attribute.

Program maturity scaling typically identifies five levels of program maturity:

1. Basic – minimal controls, apparent gaps in governance, no process integration
2. Reactive – focus on critical functions, limited resources, limited process integration
3. Proactive – auto-discovery of assets, governance and policy documented, managed processes
4. Service – collaboration across org, metrics in place, attention to compliance
5. Value-Add – process integration, strategic thinking, documented qualitative and quantitative results

Assigning points to the maturity scale and assigning each program attribute a point value based on its maturity will help identify the current state of your program.

Your preferred scoring method may take on a single area of focus or be multi-faceted depending on your needs and how thorough and complex your analysis needs to be. Here are examples of program assessment measurements you can use:

1. Using a 10-point scale, a GAP SCORE can be useful in identifying your “As Is” or current state compared to your “To Be” or future state. For each attribute indicate an “As Is” value and a “To Be” value from 1-10 using the maturity scale as your guide. The difference between the two values is your gap score. If that specific attribute is a priority and the gap is significant, you may want to formulate a strategy to implement or improve this program attribute.

2. A PRIORITY SCALE is another scoring method to help determine where you will focus your time and effort, and which attributes will take implementation precedence. Have your experienced team assess how valuable each program attribute is in developing your ideal ITAM program. The scale could look similar to one of these:

Must Have Should Have Could Have Nice To Have Low to No Value
High Mid-High Mid Low-Mid Low
9-10 7-8 5-6 3-4 1-2

3. A third option is to determine how easy an attribute is to administer considering numerous conditions. This scoring is based on the educated opinions of designated, informed staff. An EASE OF ADMINISTRATION SCORE may look like this and consider the following conditions:

Most Difficult Challenging Moderate Mild Easy
9-10 7-8 5-6 3-4 1-2

• Time required to complete
• Complexity of process or procedure
• Resources required to complete
• Leadership support
• Fiscal impact
• Alignment with organizational/IT strategy

Again, you may want to explore a single scoring methodology or use one in combination with another like combining a Gap Score with a Priority Scale. So, if you have an attribute with a large gap AND a high priority, this attribute will become mission critical in your strategy.

The idea of a comprehensive program maturity assessment is not intended to be a “one-and-done” proposition. Organizational goals, regulatory conditions and leadership vision could change what Is important and valued for your organization. Reassessing your program using a proven method like this will become a valuable tool that should be used regularly.