Blog: A Step-by-Step Guide to the EDA Maturity Model

Many organizations are moving to an event-driven architecture (EDA), allowing systems to respond in real time to events and data changes. It creates a more flexible IT setup by allowing components to communicate asynchronously, which in turn improves scalability.

That’s why our EDA experts came together to create a framework for organizations ready to dive into EDA.

This framework offers you a guide, a reliable foundation, and a sounding board along the way – designed to bring everyone in the organization on board, every step of the journey.

Say hello to the EDA Maturity Model!

How to maximize the EDA Maturity Model’s potential

The EDA Maturity Model is designed to assist our customers and consultants in understanding which EDA maturity level aligns best with the current and future needs of the organization.

It will provide a clear snapshot of your EDA journey, highlighting where you are now and where you’re headed. By offering insights into both quick wins and long-term goals, it keeps your progress on track and visible within the model. This way, the maturity model creates a common ground across IT, business, and management, ensuring everyone is aligned—a crucial factor in EDA. For many in the organization, EDA is a “black box” as it often operates behind the scenes. With the EDA Maturity Model, we provide you and everyone involved with the clarity to see your progress unfold in a structured, visible way.

It’s important to remember that this model is:

• It’s a guideline, not a rulebook. Instead, it serves as a reference that should be adapted to fit your specific context, business strategy, and future goals.

• A feedback mechanism to help you assess where you are today, where you need or want to be, and how to chart a path to get there.

• The desired maturity level will vary depending on your unique circumstances—not every organization needs to reach level 5.

• It’s not a one-time exercise: maturity is dynamic and requires regular reassessment to ensure continuous improvement and alignment with evolving needs.

Enough said. You must be curious. Let’s dive into the model!

Unpacking the EDA Maturity Model

Think of this model as a grid with an X and Y axis. The X-axis represents levels—from 1 to 5—showing an organization’s maturity stage. The Y-axis evaluates EDA maturity across five key dimensions. Let’s take a closer look at these indicators.

Maturity Levels – (X-axis)

Initiating (level 1): EDA practices are uncoordinated, driven by individual preferences, lacking organizational support, structured guidelines, or consistent platforms. There are no clear goals, and the scope is limited and isolated. Internal communication is minimal and informal

Exploratory (level 2): EDA is explored through isolated efforts with limited understanding, lacking formal governance and a broader vision. Teams share insights informally, experiment with event brokers, and hold sessions to introduce the benefits of EDA and explore potential platforms

Emerging (level 3): EDA becomes proactive and strategic, with defined roles, responsibilities, and organizational support through pilot projects and initial guidelines. Different event brokers are tested, and EDA is promoted within IT to align with the broader strategy.

Systematic (level 4): EDA practices are standardized with strong governance and an enterprise-wide scope, guided by clear objectives. Teams collaborate on reusable events, use a central platform for communication, and share updates to highlight the benefits of EDA.

Optimized (level 5): EDA is fully integrated, with strong collaboration between business and IT, established governance, and organization-wide standards. Enterprise platforms support communication, and ongoing promotion highlights EDA’s benefits across departments.

EDA Maturity increases as we progress from level 1 to level 5. Along this journey, organizations often reach a plateau or tipping point in their maturity growth. In the EDA Maturity Model, a key tipping point occurs between levels 1 and 3. At this stage, organizations either move toward a fully integrated EDA architecture or remain in a project-based, ad-hoc approach.

At levels 1 and 2, EDA is mostly reactive and experimental, lacking strong governance and a clear strategic vision. Within this approach, EDA efforts are siloed within individual projects. Transitioning to level 3 marks a crucial shift. EDA and event streams become a strategic pillar and an integral part of the overall architecture. Beyond level 3, business and IT collaborate closely, with models in place to support easier integration and growth.

Key dimensions (Y-axis)

Governance: The structures, policies, and rules that ensure EDA is managed consistently and aligns with business goals. How does the organization ensure alignment and consistency?

Organization: The extent to which EDA is embedded in the organization’s operations. How integrated are EDA capabilities within teams, and how effectively do they support cross-functional collaboration?

Design and realization: How EDA tasks are handled, with guidelines, standards, and best practices in place. How are events being designed? What standards are being followed? How are these practices being implemented in code?

Platform: The presence of an EDA platform that enables seamless communication across the organization. How effectively does the organization select, implement, and scale EDA platforms to enhance enterprise-wide communication?

Marketing and Evangelization: Efforts to promote EDA within the organization. How does the organization promote, educate, and demonstrate the value of EDA, including event discovery, to build awareness, alignment, and engagement across both IT and business teams?

In our vision, these five dimensions are the key pillars of a successful Event-Driven Architecture. Each dimension plays an important role and supports the others at every stage. They encompass everything from creating clear policies and integrating EDA into daily operations to encouraging teamwork and building organization-wide understanding. If one area has low maturity, it will be hard to move forward to the next stage, as these dimensions are connected and need to be aligned with one another to move on.

Conclusion:

EDA Maturity is a gradual, strategic journey. It relies on cultural and technical alignment within the organization. Without this alignment, embedding EDA into the organization’s strategic direction becomes nearly impossible.

The EDA Maturity Model provides effective guidance for improvement. It simplifies complex transformations into manageable stages and actionable steps, guiding organizations smoothly through each level of maturity.

Looking to implement EDA with our model and expert support? Let’s get started!