Almost every process maturity model is assessed the same way: a workshop, a questionnaire, a self-assessment by consensus, and a number between 1 and 5 that ends up on a slide. Six months later nobody can say why the organization “is at level 3”, or what would have to change for it not to be.
The maturity model in the Dexon BPM methodology starts from a rule that inverts that practice: an organization is not at the level it says it is; it is at the level it can demonstrate. And “demonstrate” has a technical meaning: evidence extractable from the platform — real traceability relationships, registered owners and approval dates, indicators tied to processes that actually run, audit trails. Never declarative self-assessments.
The five levels
| Level | Name | What can be demonstrated |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Basic documentation | Processes and data documented; traceability to strategy, capabilities, services and indicators is weak |
| 2 | Structured modelling | Processes in BPMN, characterised with a sheet, with data identified and owners defined |
| 3 | Integrated automation | Processes executing with forms, rules, related data, SLAs, roles, offerings and reports |
| 4 | Traceable architecture | Every process demonstrates its link to strategy, capabilities, services, offerings, data and indicators |
| 5 | Governed executable architecture | The organization measures, governs, versions, re-approves and improves with continuous evidence |
The progression is not one of quantity but of kind. From level 1 to 2 you get there by modelling; from 2 to 3, by executing; from 3 to 4, by tracing — and that is the jump most organizations never make, because having many automated flows is not maturity. An organization can have hundreds of processes running and still be immature if it does not control its data, its indicators, its roles, its changes and its learning.
The criterion that separates the levels
Higher maturity is reached when the organization can formulate an objective, design the process towards that objective, implement it, measure its fulfilment, learn from the operation and modify it without breaking its architecture. Every verb in that chain leaves queryable evidence:
- The formulated objective is a structured object on the process sheet — stakeholders, outcomes, criteria with thresholds — not a paragraph.
- The links to strategy, capabilities and services are repository relationships, verifiable by query.
- The indicator that verifies fulfilment is anchored to the real process and carries its history.
- The modification leaves a trace: a new approval date, a new approver, impact queried before touching anything.
That is why a maturity assessment does not need a questionnaire: it needs the platform opened. The architecture conformance check lists what the repository cannot demonstrate — the process without a service, the objective without a verifiable criterion, the indicator without an anchor — and each finding is, literally, the distance to the next level.
The practical consequence: the gap is the plan
When maturity is measured with evidence, the result stops being a diagnosis and becomes a work plan: the exact list of artefacts missing for the next level, each one an editor away. And it protects against the two classic self-deceptions of maturity models — declaring level 4 because the committee voted for it, and staying at level 3 without knowing what is missing.
One more honesty built into the model: processes governed under the light version of the method — the methodology accepts that not every internal procedure deserves full formalisation — are reported separately. They meet their minimum conditions and do not count as non-conformant; nor do they inflate the level. Declaring the scope is part of demonstrating.
The full model is chapter 21 of the Dexon BPM V8 methodology (downloadable without registration), and the glossary entries on demonstrable maturity and the Dexon maturity model summarise the concepts. If you want to know which level your organization is at — the demonstrable one, not the declared one — bring us a process and we will query it together against the repository.