The concept and legal nature of digital maturity

The article examines the legal nature of the institute of digital maturity. Being considered the legal grounds for the introduction and use of digital maturity indicators as part of digital transformation processes. The authors analyze the definitions of digital maturity given in the current legislation and scientific literature and outline the indicators of digital maturity. Based on the analysis of legal regulation and the legal nature of the digital maturity concept, the authors define it as the result (level) of the development of a particular subject, object, institution or development direction as part of the digital transformation implementation. This result is characterized by a certain general and special set of indicators (indicators). The article proposes to formalize this definition as part of a federal law or a decree of the Government of the Russian Federation. The analysis of the legal regulation of relations connected with the digital maturity provision indicates a clear lack of methodological support for these processes, the lack of a unified approach to understanding what digital maturity is, and what general and special indicators and criteria for their assessment should be used. The article concludes that, based on the existing legislation, it is often difficult to understand what requirements exist for a certain actor to ensure the digital maturity and how it is to be achieved. The future development of the concept of digital maturity will largely be based on the practical implementation of legally fixed models. In this regard, the authors believe that an instrumental means is carrying out the experiments on the official implementation of these indicators at the level of individual subjects, thus testing it and identifying a promising model for the digital maturity development. In the current situation, there exists a need for the development of the institute by assessing the practical implementation of digital maturity as part of digital transformation processes both at the federal and regional levels in the Russian Federation.