The What and Why of Business Process Maturity Model (BPMM)

Business Process Maturity Model (BPMM) charts an evolutionary path for an organization to move from immature, inconsistent processes to mature, disciplined processes. So why is this journey important?

Organizations that have just begun traversing the process maturity curve have processes that are inconsistent and are often improvised by practitioners as the work is performed. Quality of products and services is difficult to predict due to varying processes. Managers are usually focused on “firefighting” immediate crisis. Budget, schedule, and service level agreements are often not met. Activities intended to enhance quality are curtailed or eliminated when production plans fall behind schedule. Customers have little insight into the products and services until they receive them. Such challenges due to immature processes impede an organization’s ability to improve customer experience, increase revenues, reduce operational costs, and be more agile.

BPMM serves as the map that can guide organizations in their journey to achieving mature, disciplined processes thereby maximizing performance. Using BPMM, an organization can identify where their various process areas currently are on the process maturity curve, and take steps towards achieving higher levels of process maturity.

One of the prominent BPMM models is Gartner’s Business Process Maturity Model, which is divided into five maturity levels representing different states through which an organization is transformed as its processes and capability are improved.

The six phases of BPM Maturity (Source: Gartner)
The six phases of BPM Maturity (Source: Gartner)

A few of the primary purposes BPMM serves especially well include:

  1. Guiding business process improvement programs
  2. Assessing risk for developing and deploying enterprise applications
  3. Evaluating the capability of suppliers
  4. Benchmarking

Should your organization require expertise in its journey to more mature, disciplined processes, contact us at info@polariseme.com.

*References: OMG BPMM, Gartner BPMM