Working in collaborative and dispersed (C&D) settings is now common for project teams, especially for those active in multinational companies or in international contexts. The concept of "collaborative maturity" has recently been proposed by various authors in order to identify and measure the competence of a firm working in C&D mode. Many models of collaborative maturity have been proposed, reflecting the increasing importance of this area of research. However, the existing literature is spread among multiple journals in various fields of research. For a better understanding of collaborative maturity and how it is measured, a thorough literature review is conducted and an extension of existing research is proposed. This will serve as the theoretical background for future empirical research. The results should be useful for project managers and academicians with an interest in C&D projects.