All 35 requirements · Governance maturity aspects
Model requirement 4.1
The purpose of evaluating governance maturity and its three aspects
What ISO 37004:2023 asks at 4.1, in our own words, and how it reads inside a controlled group. The draft's public contents heading for it is 4.1 General.
What the model asks
Governance maturity is evaluated to find out how much confidence stakeholders can place in the governing body's ability to govern in a way that lets the organization reach the governance outcomes of ISO 37000: effective performance, responsible stewardship and ethical behaviour. Maturity means that the governing body puts suitable governance conditions in place, adopts the governance principles and puts them into practice through the key aspects of practice. How a principle is applied is looked at through three maturity aspects: the behaviour of the governing body, the effectiveness of the practices it uses to apply the principle, and the efficiency of those practices. The same three aspects are used for how the governance conditions have been established.
What it means when one board controls another
In a controlled group, the frame is asked twice: once for the group and once for each controlled entity. A group result that looks healthy can hide an entity whose board cannot reach the outcomes because the controller has taken the decisions that matter. Record both levels before you interpret the group number.
Evidence an evaluator asks for
A maturity rating is a claim about how the group governs. The evidence is what proves it operated. Keep both, and keep them together.
- Governance maturity: Evaluation design naming the three aspects and the ISO 37000 outcomes as its frame
Where evaluations commonly find gaps
- Maturity judged on documentation alone, ignoring behaviour and effectiveness
How this requirement enters the rating
This unit sets the frame rather than a single rating. It is the place to record why the group is evaluating maturity, which three aspects the assessment will use, and which ISO 37000 outcomes it is aiming at. The evidence is the evaluation design, not a score.
It carries 1 evidence item and 1 common gap in the model. One item is enough only if it is the artefact that proves the practice operated, not a policy that says it should. The group application on this page is ours; the requirement and evidence are the model's, stated in our own words.
Requirements that sit beside it
Source for this page
- ISO 37004:2023, Governance of organizations, Governance maturity model, Guidance. The published text of the organizational governance maturity model, which the draft applies to controlled groups. Supplies the three aspects, the measurement framework, the six-point scale, the dimensions and the 35 model requirements stated on this site.
- ISO/DIS 37014 official record. The designation, title, edition, committee, ICS, stage, stage date, page count, price and abstract. Retrieved 21 October 2026.
- ISO/DIS 37014 free OBP preview. The foreword, introduction, scope, normative references, terms and definitions and the full table of contents, which ISO publishes for free. Retrieved 21 October 2026.
Retrieved 2026-10-21. The requirement above is our statement of the clause in our own words; the official text is linked so you can check it.
Note on the draft: The requirement, evidence and gaps on this page are read from ISO 37004:2023, which the draft states it builds on. The draft's own clause body is not public, so this page does not state it. The clause reference at the top is the draft's public contents heading that this requirement sits under.
The maturity kit, USD 299 one off. The 35-requirement register, the 54-cell maturity worksheet, the evidence list and a dated plan, as PDF, CSV and XLSX.