Digital Identity

Chapter 15. Identity Maturity Models and Process Architectures

In the last chapter, we set up governance for the identity management architecture (IMA) process and built a business model. As we've seen, the business model is really just a comprehensive documentation of the goals, people, and processes of the business units building the IMA. The next task is to determine where your organization's current technology and practices stand with an eye to improving them. The tool we'll use is called a digital identity maturity model .

Our objective in this chapter is to distinguish mature identity processes from immature processes, develop an identity process inventory, and plan for identity process improvement. We use the word "process" quite deliberately. Organizations that view internal activities as a series of isolated tasks cannot build a digital identity infrastructure that will accomplish the objectives set forth in this book. The reason is quite simple: viewing activities as isolated tasks does not allow the results to be consistently measured and that information to be fed back into the organization so that the activity can be improved.

In an organization with immature processes, projects are executed without many guidelines by teams that are free to proceed as best they can. Project success is dependent on the efforts of a few "virtuoso performers." Predicting the success or failure of a project is difficult, and when the project is finished, it is often impossible to identify ...