Improving Processes with Process Management Maturity

Webinar Takeaways

What is the difference between process maturity and process management maturity?

Process maturity is:

• a measure of how well defined and controlled a company’s processes are
• a high level of process maturity shows definition and documentation as well as understanding, following procedures, and continuous improvement and cross-functional collaboration within processes
• can be automated
• Interrelation between processes
• can refer to the maturity of a single process or all processes in a department or company
• a good gauge of process health or org or within process itself
• low process maturity is indicated by ad hoc process, steps, activities low definition of process, performance level unknown, high variation, rigid and unchanging
   

Process management maturity is marked by:

• leadership of engagement
• ownership of process
• collaboration within and across processes
• low process management is indicated by lack of leadership and engagement by org leadership
• unclear direction
• high maturity includes ownership, stewardship, accountability, governance, understanding process performance, trends, variation, strategic direction
• many organizations have low process management maturity

With organizations needing to manage processes with fewer resources, more organizations are looking to applications to help. Monitoring, capturing, and processing the data can be a challenge in this environment, with people needing to develop the skills to work within those applications to support the process improvement effort. Some organizations use project management, some use IT resources—it can vary across organizations.

The path to high process management maturity

Typically, an organization will have ad hoc processes that leadership recognizes need to be more consistent and controlled.

This diagram from webinar presenter Jim Nelson explains the steps, from left to right, that organizations go through to achieve process management maturity.