Process maturity vs. Process capability – What is the difference?

Key take away:

Process maturity means that whatever an organisation is doing, it is done in a well-documented way, and everyone knows what is expected of them and they perform accordingly. 

We use process maturity levels to define or classify organisations according to their ability to control their various processes. 

Process maturity models helps to define reference and assessment schemes for maturity resp. capability levels in detail.

It can be said, that it classify and or inform organisations on their ability to control their various processes. 

Process capability is used to define if a deliverable satisfies specified product quality, service quality, and process performance objectives. 

A capable process consistently produces output that is within specifications and in theory the execution of capable process always gives predictable results.

Process capability levels classify the performances of relevant processes within a certain process area (in an organisation), organisational department, or project. At the top (picture) you can see a presentation of a normal distribution (bell-shaped curve) where each band has a width of 1 standard deviation (68-95-99,7 rule). 

Available process maturity models define in a process reference model the processes, the pre- and post-conditions of the application, and the resulting work products. An associated process assessment model (PAM) defines a hierarchical evaluation scheme to assess the maturity and capability on certain levels.

TIPA (from Luxembourg Institute for Science and Technology) is based on the ISO/IEC 15504-33000 (Process Assessment) and ISO/IEC 20000 (ITSM Quality Standard) standards. 

Maturity and Capability levels.

Process maturity can be articulated by two different representations: 

- a staged model and the continuous representation.

The staged representation uses the maturity levels to define the overall state of the organisation's processes relative to the process model as a whole and focuses on overall maturity as measured by maturity levels.

The continuous representation focuses on process area capability as measured by capability levels.

Capability levels and process attributes ISO/IEC 15504

For each process, ISO/IEC 15504 defines a capability level on the following scale: 

• Level 5 - Optimizing process.
• Level 4 - Predictable process.
• Level 3 - Established process.
• Level 2 - Managed process.
• Level 1 - Performed process.
• Level 0 - Incomplete process

The capability of processes is measured using process attributes. The international standard defines nine process attributes: 

1.1 Process performance; 2.1 Performance management; 2.2 Work product management; 3.1 Process definition; 3.2 Process deployment; 4.1 Process measurement; 4.2 Process control; 5.1 Process innovation and 5.2 Process optimization.

Each process attribute consists of one or more generic practices. The validation of these practices allow further elaboration into practice indicators to aid assessment performance.

The rating is based upon evidence collected against the practice indicators, which demonstrate fulfillment of the process attribute. 

Do you want to create visibility, - but not sure where to start from?

The start is not related to a specific scenario, although some are more obvious than others, but the ability to establish the right picture of where things need to be improved or changed is paramount before improvement projects or implementation of new ITSM tool.

Not all processes are created equal or have the same priority. They have different impact on your business, and they carry different merits towards your strategic goals. 

As stated by Gartner“Achieving a better process capability (maturity) is a multi-year transformation, and the movement from one level to another is not evenly distributed in time and effort”. Therefore, it is paramount to have some roadmap milestones which can support management in making the decision required in due time.  

Get practical guidance for better IT process assessment

TIPA® for ITIL® is an objective, repeatable, ISO-based IT process assessment method, which gives you the majority of inputs you need to decide what and where to invest your effort.

TIPA® Framework is capable of pinpointing the capability of your processes and use this assessment in defining and determining which activities/changes would best support the digitization in your business.The adoption of this approach is vendor neutral and affordable.

We offer introductory packages that combine the necessary awareness training with assessment guidance to ensure the success of your first process assessment in your business.

A Process Reference Model (PRM) describes for a certain application domain a set of processes. Each process is described by its purpose and the associated process outcomes (i.e. work products). Process Reference Models are always related to a Process Assessment Model (PAM) which holds all details (indicators) to determine the maturity of the processes of the reference model.