PhD

My PhD aimed at gaining insight into the concept of business process maturity. You can order this work at Springer or Amazon.

Problem statement

Mature business processes are important, but... (anno 2009, PhD start)

- Scare academic literature on business process maturity models (BPMMs), indicating a yet unexplored research domain
- No comprehensive comparative studies on BPMMs (<> many BPMMs)
- No theories on maturity, independent of particular BPMMs (<> criticism: BPMMs oversimplify the complex business reality)

In Q2 2010, we collected a sample of 69 BPMMs:

- Both academic and non-academic models
- Both generic and domain-specific models (i.e. supply chains or collaboration processes)
- Both focusing on the maturity of specific business processes, and on the overall management of all business processes

The sample gave evidence on the existence of many BPMMs, but without a common theoretical foundation.

My research contribution:

- Building and testing a comparative BPMM framework, including all design elements
- Building and testing an initial theory on business process maturity

Academic relevance

Practical relevance

- Summarising and grounding the BPMM literature to some degree
- Evaluating the quality of existing BPMMs
- Directing future BPMM research avenues

- Providing a BPMM overview
- Advising how to choose a BPMM that best fits the organisational needs (by means of a free online decision tool: BPMM Smart-Selector)
- Advising how BPMMs can be properly used to efficiently and effectively realise business process management within concrete organisations