Looking for a fit for purpose: business process maturity models from a user's perspective

Many books and articles have been written about the importance of business process management. However, in practice, improving business processes remains challenging. Therefore, business process maturity models (BPMMs) have been developed to assist organizations in their search for business process excellence (e.g. CMMI or OMG-BPMM). However, given their importance, a BPMM proliferation exists and practitioners are left without overview. Moreover, BPMMs differ in approach. An organization wishing to start with a BPMM thus risks selecting a model that does not fully fits its needs. The BPMM literature and the general literature on maturity models are mainly restricted to the design perspective. To our knowledge, the user’s perspective is largely neglected. Based on an international Delphi study, this article introduces 14 criteria that (potential) BPMM users must consider to obtain a fit for purpose. The findings will be used to build a decision tool for BPMM selection