Jorn Johansen,
Whitebox, Denmark
Jan Pries Heje,
Roskilde University, Denmark
Jens Hojriis Aarup,
Systematic, Denmark
Susana Boavida,
Critical Software, Portugal
We are in a situation where competitiveness is becoming more and more important. The technological possibilities are growing exponentially and are getting even more complex. Projects are getting bigger and bigger and now include infrastructure, technological platforms, distributed development across many teams and organisations, structured research, focused business development, regulation and compliance with standards, and much more. All of which can only be countered by organizational maturity.
The Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) and the ISO based Software Process Improvement and Capability Determination (SPICE) maturity models supporting organizations advancements towards higher maturity. They have 5 levels of maturity, where level 4 and five are the high maturity levels.
Today more than 75% of all CMMI appraisals are performed in China. Why is it so? Since the launch of the Smart Manufacturing 2025 strategy China have poured massive investments into improving their innovation, manufacturing and development capabilities. In Chinas eyes, achieving high maturity is not only a necessity, it is a force multiplier.
This topic must be addressed in the European Union and other countries. We want to put our innovative manufacturing and development up front, we want to focus on our operational excellence. Yes, we want modularization, we want sustainability, we want safety, etc. But to get there in an effective way, European companies must focus on become more mature – or even achieve high maturity.
We are also looking into development of very complex high security systems of systems projects involving several organizations (e.g. the European Skyshield defense system including satellite connections), where high maturity is required to ensure the needed level of quality.
To many, even at political level, it is not clear what the benefits of achieving high maturity or even being a mature company really is. This is one of the reasons why there are relatively few High Maturity companies within the European Union.
This calls for the need of a High Maturity group within the European Union, where European companies can assist and help each other to become even more mature, and where from where the benefits and how to succeed with High Maturity can be told and spread. If your organization has achieved high maturity in a software maturity assessment like CMMI (e.g., Level 4 or 5), it means you've developed strong, disciplined processes, with quantitative management and continuous improvement built into your operations. However, high maturity doesn't mean you're free from problems - it just changes the nature of the challenges you face.
Workshop Program 18.09.2025
1. Diminishing Returns on Process Improvements. At high maturity levels, most "low-hanging fruit" have already been addressed. Further improvements require more effort for smaller gains.
2. Process Rigidity and Bureaucracy. Mature processes can become overly rigid or bureaucratic, making it difficult to adapt to new business needs or technologies.
3. Innovation vs. Process Discipline. Maintaining rigorous processes may conflict with the flexibility needed for innovation and experimentation. Hence, there is a risk of becoming too conservative and falling behind disruptive competitors.
4. Maintaining Process Relevance. With new technologies such as GenAI and Data Analytics processes that were once optimal may become outdated.
5. Cultural Complacency. Success with process maturity can breed a false sense of security or a culture resistant to change.
6. Data Overload. High maturity organizations collect and analyze large amounts of data for quantitative process management. Hence, there is a risk of spending excessive time on unnecessary metrics that don’t drive decision-making.
7. Talent Retention and Motivation. Highly structured environments may not appeal to creative or entrepreneurial developers.
8. Alignment Across Locations. As organizations scale with mature processes, aligning goals and maintaining consistency across multiple locations and teams becomes harder.
9. Sustaining Executive and Stakeholder Buy-in. The value of high maturity practices can be abstract or long-term.
10. Audits and Compliance Overhead. With high maturity comes the expectation of rigorous documentation, reviews, and audits. These activities can consume time and distract from value-generating work.
Jorn Johansen, Whitebox, Denmark, Jan Pries-Heje, PhD, R., Roskilde University, Denmark, Susana Boavida, Critical Software, Portugal, Jens Hojriis Aarup, Systematic, Denmark
Jorn Johansen, Whitebox, Denmark, Jan Pries-Heje, PhD, R., Roskilde University, Denmark, Susana Boavida, Critical Software, Portugal, Jens Hojriis Aarup, Systematic, Denmark
19.30 - 20.15 Classical Music Event in the Small Guild House
The Small Guild (Latvian: Maza gilde) is a building situated in Riga, Latvia, at 3/5 Amatu Street. The building was erected in the years 1864—66 after a project by architect Johann Felsko in Neo-Gothic style.
Karol Danis and Anton Bashynskyi are exceptional musicians who play classical music at EuroSPI social events since 2021 and have both won a number of international prizes. See the profile of Karol Danis and of Anton Bashynskyi. This year Anton Bashynskyi and a further prize winning classical musician will play piano for us.
20.30 - 23.30 Buffet at the Small Guild
Background of Experts
Jorn Johansen, Whitebox, Denmark
I have almost always participated in the EuroSPI conferences, because I find EuroSPI through its various participants (private, public, universities and consultants) has a basis that creates very valuable discussions and share beneficial experience. EuroSPI Certificates and Services. The next conference takes place September 17. to 19. in Riga. You can also find me at LinkedIn. Shortly: I’m an engineer of education, has been developer and project manager at Brüel & Kjær for 15 years. The following 30 years I have been an assessor and helped companies improve their maturity in product development or project delivery. Over time more than 700 assessments in close to 300 different companies.
Jan Pries-Heje, PhD, R., Roskilde University, Denmark
Jan Pries Heje is Professor in Computer Science and Information Systems at Roskilde University, Denmark. He is Head of the Sustainable Digitalization Research Group, and Director of Studies for Master in Project Management and Organizational Change. He has more than 25 years of experience working as Project and Research manager and doing research focusing on designing and building innovative solutions to managerial and organizational IT problems. He serves as Editor-in-Chief for IFIP Select, and Senior Editor for Journal of the AIS. He is Conference Chair for the upcoming International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS) to be held in Lisbon in 2026.
28 years ago he was trained as maturity assessor using the European Bootstrap model. He worked three years as an assessor with the Danish company DELTA. After that he returned to Academia where he has done research in process improvement for the last 25 years. He was the lead for research in a 3-year 60 million DKK Innovation Consortium where the ImprovAbility model was developed. That model later became the ISO 33014 standard for process improvement. He was also, together with Jørn Johansen, responsible for creating the SPI Manifesto.
Susana Boavida, Critical Software, Portugal
She is holding a degree in Computer Engineering, Susana found her passion early in process improvement and CMMI. Link to her LinkedIn Profile.
With nearly 20 years of experience, she plays a key role in advancing high-maturity practices at Critical Software, contributing to the evolution of quality and agility in complex, multi-standard environments. She has led CMMI Level 5 initiatives, blending agile methods with structured governance. Susana also designed and implemented a company-wide QMS focused on both compliance and business value, supporting both regulatory needs and organizational agility.
Jens Hojriis Aarup, Systematic, Denmark
Most of my professional life I have spent developing and maturing IT organisations from a high maturity perspective. I hold a degree in Computer Science and as such I have worked as a developer, team lead, but mostly as project manager and manager in various Danish companies. For almost 20 years I have enhanced and improved organisational capabilities using the CMMI model as a base in combination with best practises from various domains. As such, I have advanced several generations of CMMI ML5 process libraries (QMS). Each accelerating business value while supporting a multi model compliance picture. Link to his LinkedIn Profile.