Need a way of rating your processes? Some options are the Carnegie Mellon Maturity Index (CMMI), the Business Excellence Framework (BEF) and the American Productivity & Quality Centre - Process Classification Framework (APQC-PCF), all of which can take a while to implement and can be difficult to get your head around. There's also the more recent option of process mining if you have suitable data.
As an alternative, there is a simpler method, one that will not look at the bigger picture of organisational optimisation but can still assist in identifying critical processes and in producing a priority rating for potential improvement.
The first step is to create a high level 'Linkage of Processes' map (LOP) of the organisation, containing essential processes and what passes between them, bounded by the scope of interest.
Then to each process, apply a rating for CONDITION and BUSINESS IMPACT (approximately based on the CMMI capability scale), which when taken together will indicate a priority for improvement, for example a high impact process in poor condition would receive a high priority. This can be a subjective exercise, if little or no practical data is available. Other criteria may be added to refine the initial rating, such as Changeability, Customer Impact or Frequency of Use.
Although simple, the technique can be surprisingly effective in highlighting areas for improvement across an organisation.
Process Rating