GÉANT Maturity Model framework comprises several items:

• Maturity levels are descriptions of maturity that could be elaborated for any specific field or target area. By elaborating a maturity model, this generic scale is adapted for a field or target area, by analysing and detailing the related subjects, goals, processes, common stages, practices, tools.
  The proposed generic scale has five levels that can be easily identified and matched in other developed maturity models.
• Target areas are thematic subjects representing fields of interest that focus the work on the improvement of teams or software development projects, their processes and practices, and development of related instruments that should direct, support or measure the advancement.
  These areas need to be cohesive, relevant at the specific point in time, complete, fine-grained and independent, while individual elements and goals in them should be close to each other. The selected target areas should be already recognised as relevant and familiar to the audience.
  These areas may be already identified or acknowledged in other maturity models. The Guide to the Software Engineering Body of Knowledge (SWEBOK Guide) maintained by the IEEE Computer Society provides a suitable taxonomy of the field. It can be used as a frame of reference, but the actual names and scopes of areas should be rather aligned with the actual understanding of the target audience, in this case, software developers.
  Most maturity models focus on one target area.
• Specific goals are concerns associated with one target area that may be observed and analysed across several or all levels of the maturity model. Sometimes these goals may be similar in nature across several areas or closely related. The existing maturity models often analyse one or several closely related goals.
  In order to identify and develop these goals, it may be useful to observe the goals established for nearby areas. Often, elements from various maturity levels that aim at one specific goal are progressively dependent - in order to be able to meet some maturity element and a certain level, a corresponding element from the preceding level must be met.

The Maturity Model lays a foundation for defining a catalogue of Common Best Practices that provide recommendations how to address the objectives identified in the SMM

lications of GÉANT maturity model

The primary goal of GÉANT maturity model is to address elements crucial for effective software development, by identifying and assessing practices and gaps and suggesting what should be improved in each particular case.
The landscape of possible uses includes:

• Self-assessment
• Intelligence and information gathering
• Identification, capture and classification of practices or knowledge
• Development of guidelines, best practices or educational materials
  
• Planning of training
• Evaluation – not necessarily translates into ranking on a discrete or continuous scale, as a descriptive evaluation may suffice and be even more useful.
• support for related initiatives
• Assigning maturity levels – different interpretations of whether all or some elements of levels need to be met
• Ranking
• Development of conformance criteria.
• Certification