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I was was recently asked: 

"I am having difficulty communicating the business risk of having processes like Change Management and Incident Management sit at Initial (Level 1) maturity. Can you address some of the common business risks and costs companies see by having immature processes?"

Great question!  Many organizations do not recognize the inherent risks inhaving immature critical processes such as Incident Management and Change Management. Both processes strive to increase service availability either by identifying and mitigating risk before a change is made or minimizing the impact of a failure after a service is deployed. 

To refresh our memories, I have included a description of each aspect of Level 1 in the Process Maturity Framework, with its associated risks: 

• Vision and Steering: Minimal funds and resources with little activity. Results temporary, not retained. Sporadic reports and reviews.
  • No formal objectives and targets. Wasted activity with no defined direction for CSI. Reports are not regular nor reviewed and funding for planned growth and resource utilization cannot be determined.
• Process: Loosely defined processes and procedures used reactively when problems occur. Totally reactive processes. Irregular, unplanned activities.
  • Processes are not clearly defined with goals and objectives which can be measured for achievements, customer satisfaction, and alignment with business goals and objectives. Service provider is not delivering value for money and if you are, you cannot show it.
• People: Loosely defined roles or responsibilities.
  • No clearly defined roles and responsibilities. No one will be clearly accountable or responsible for the delivery, support, documentation, maintenance and CSI of services, processes or the underlying infrastructure.
• Technology: Manual processes or a few specific, discrete tools (pockets/islands).
  • Data about your environment and the changes or weaknesses within it are not being captured. Event, alert, incident and problem management not being recorded and intergraded along with the data that will allow your organization to make informed decisions on how to improve your environment and where to wisely spend and budget your resources.
• Culture: Tools and technology based and driven with strong activity focus.
  • We move from a tools and technology focus to a holistic approach of delivering services that meet the needs of business and customer requirements. We focus on delivering utility and warranty thus providing value to the business we support.
    
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    Originally posted By Professor P. Ross S. Wise to ITSM Professor