How to use the EFQM approach to assess business process maturity

An adequate degree of maturity is not only vital to human beings, in order to react on events of the environment. For business processes, maturity is important to ensure a consistent level of good performance and the ability to satisfy stakeholder expectations. The objective of this book is to develop an adequate self-assessment method, which is based on the EFQM approach, to measure process maturity. At first, the theoretical foundations are set. The terms process and maturity are defined and the importance of measuring process maturity is described. The EFQM Excellence model will be explained and compared to classic maturity models. Afterwards, the self-assessment approach for processes is discussed and techniques for gathering process-related information are examined. In the second part, the devised assessment approach is presented in a case study. The study is based on a conducted pilot assessment of the quality surveillance process at the German manufacturing facility of DIEHL Controls. Subsequently, the author discusses the appropriateness of the approach, possible improvements and critical success factors.