A theoretical framework and classification of capability areas for business process maturity

Organisations are increasingly striving to excel by improving their way of working, or in other words, to obtain mature business processes. However, no consensus exists on the capability areas (or skills) needed to excel. Therefore, this study presents a theoretical framework to overcome this gap. It particularly draws on theories regarding the traditional business process lifecycle, which are supplemented by recognised organisation management theories. The comprehensiveness of the framework is successfully validated by a sample of 69 business process maturity models (BPMMs). Nonetheless, as a consensus neither exists among the collected BPMMs, a classification of different maturity types is proposed.