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Maturity Assessment

Use this playbook to score the estate, agree a target level, and sequence investment. Maturity is per domain (payments, claims, agents), not one global number.

Maturity levels

Observability maturity model from L0 Reactive through L5 Autonomous ops with characteristics and typical gaps

LevelNameYou haveYou lack
0ReactiveAd-hoc logs, SSH debuggingCorrelation, SLOs
1MonitoringDashboards, threshold alertsTraces, business context
2ObservabilityMetrics + logs + tracesCross-layer graph
3Business-awareKPIs mapped to services, journeysPredictive signals
4PredictiveAnomaly detection, proactive alertsSafe automation
5Autonomous opsRemediation on select pathsBroad governance for auto-heal

Most regulated enterprises should target level 3 broadly and level 4 on tier-1 journeys before attempting level 5.

Scoring checklist

Score each row 0 (no), 1 (partial), 2 (production default) for a priority domain.

AreaCriterion012
BusinessNamed journeys with owners
BusinessOutcome KPIs alertable
BusinessEvents carry correlation_id
ServiceGolden signals per tier-1 service
ServiceDistributed traces on critical path
ServiceSLOs and error budgets
InfraWorkload labels join to services
InfraSaturation alerts before hard fail
GraphKPI → trace drill documented
GraphQuarterly E2E drill executed
GovernanceAlert registry complete
GovernanceStructured logging standard
AI (if applicable)Multi-hop agent/RAG traces
AI (if applicable)Audit tier for verdict chain

Rough level mapping:

Total score (max 28)Level
0–70–1
8–142
15–213
22–254
26–285

Adjust weights for domains without AI.

Gap → roadmap template

GapNext actionOwnerQuarter
No journey KPIsBusiness journey mappingProductQ1
Broken trace propagationCorrelation graphPlatformQ1
Orphan alertsGovernance rulesSREQ2

Release gate (assessment complete)

  • Priority domain scored with product + platform + SRE present
  • Target level agreed for 12 months
  • Top three gaps have owners and dates
  • Re-assessment scheduled (quarterly or semi-annual)