Process Maturity Types

Processes may vary in maturity depending on how well defined they are. Four types are:

Artisan process: Made up on the fly, possibly as a temporary measure by someone who has a reasonably good idea of what to do. May be quite inefficient, but 'does the job'.
Project process: Organised, planned and formally resourced and managed, but still a 'one off' activity.
Operations process: A repeating process that has been (or is being) optimized to increase quality and decrease cost and time.
Automated process: An optimized process that has now been automated as fully as possible.

Note that automation of a project or artisan process is not a good idea as all you are likely to be doing is freezing an inefficient process.

See also: