How to run a process maturity assessment in a 100-person company
A practical way to score how mature your processes are at 100 people: who to interview, what to count, how to score and what to fix first.
Devvion · Published
"We're about 100 people now. Nothing is on fire, but everything takes longer than it should. Month-end slips by a few days, new hires take a month to be useful, and every decision of any size still comes to me. I know the processes need work. I don't know which ones, or in what order."
That's the moment most companies of this size ask for a process maturity assessment. It sounds like a consultant's word. The idea is simple: look at how each important process actually runs, give it an honest score, put a number on what the gaps cost, and rank what to fix first.
Why 100 people is when it starts to matter
Under 50 people, the founder and a few long-serving people hold the processes together. Everyone knows who to ask. Somewhere between 80 and 150, that stops working. There are too many handoffs for memory to cover, new managers run things their own way, and the same task is done three ways in three teams.
The cost doesn't appear as one line in the accounts. It shows up as rework, waiting, and people spending their week moving information from one place to another. A maturity assessment is how you see that before it hardens into the way the company works.
It is not an ISO audit and it doesn't certify anything. It's a working diagnosis that ends with a short, ranked list.
The five levels, in plain words
| Level | What you see | Typical sign | |---|---|---| | 1. Ad hoc | Done differently each time, by whoever is free | "Ask the person who's been here longest" | | 2. Repeated | Done the same way most of the time, but not written down | Works until someone is on leave | | 3. Defined | Written, with an owner and clear handoffs | A new hire can follow it | | 4. Measured | Has a few numbers that someone reviews | You know cycle time and error rate | | 5. Improving | Reviewed on a schedule and re-tuned | Changes are planned, not reactions |
Most 100-person companies score 1 or 2 on most processes and 3 on a few, usually the ones a regulator or a large customer forced on them. That's normal. The goal is not level 5 everywhere. It's level 3 on the processes that carry the business, and level 4 where volume or risk is high.
What it costs not to know
Low maturity costs time spent on work that shouldn't exist: re-keying, chasing, rework, waiting for one person's approval. Count the people who spend real time on it and put in your own figures.
The fixed flow: two weeks, five steps
Interviews to System inventory to Walk-throughs to Maturity score to Ranked opportunities
- Interviews
- System inventory
- Walk-throughs
- Maturity score
- Ranked opportunities
Interviews (days 1 to 4). Ten to fifteen conversations of about 45 minutes, across every function: finance, sales, operations, people, projects, customer service, compliance and management. Talk to the people doing the work, not only their managers. Ask what they do each week, what they wait for, and what they redo.
System inventory (days 2 to 5). List every system, spreadsheet and shared inbox each process touches, who owns it, and how data moves between them. At this size it's normal to find more tools than anyone expected, and several doing the same job.
Walk-throughs (days 5 to 7). Pick the eight to twelve processes that matter most and follow one real case through each, end to end, on screen. This is where the workarounds show up: the spreadsheet beside the ERP, the approval given on WhatsApp, the step done twice because nobody trusts the first.
Maturity score (days 8 and 9). Score each process on the five levels, with the evidence written next to the score. Add an overhead number: hours a week, per process, spent on work that only moves information or fixes errors.
Ranked opportunities (day 10). Rank fixes by hours recovered and risk reduced against effort. Mark each one: standardise first, automate, or leave alone. The output fits on a few pages: the scores, the overhead number, the ranked list and the first three moves.
Mistakes that make the result useless
- Scoring from the org chart. Process maps drawn in a meeting room describe the intended process. Score the one you watched.
- Scoring everything. Forty processes scored lightly tell you less than ten scored properly.
- No number attached. A score of 2 means little to a CFO. Hours a week, per process, means a lot.
- A list without owners. Each fix needs one named owner inside the company, or it stays a list.
What to do this week without us
- Pick eight processes, one per function. For example: month-end close, lead to quote, order fulfilment, hiring and onboarding, project intake, complaint handling, access reviews and the weekly management report.
- Ask three questions about each. Is it written down? Who owns it? Is there one number anyone looks at?
- Give each a rough score from 1 to 5 using the table above. Be strict: if it isn't written, it isn't above 2.
- Ask the people doing the work how many hours a week each process takes them, including chasing and fixing.
- Circle the two processes with the lowest score and the most hours. That's your shortlist.
It won't be as precise as a full assessment, but it gives you a first view and a sharper brief for anyone you bring in later.
When to call us
Call us when the self-assessment raises more questions than it answers, when your processes cross several systems, or when nobody inside has two clear weeks to do it properly.
Devvion's two-week assessment is the first of six stages: assess, map, mature, automate, optimise, run. We've run this at scale in large-enterprise operations and bring it down to your size. You get a maturity score per process, the overhead number and the ranked opportunities, and the fee is credited if you continue. From there, business consulting maps and matures the processes that need it, and forward-deployed engineering automates the rest: our engineer works inside your business, not from a ticket queue. The people you meet stay on your work from the first day to the last. See the use cases we meet most at this size.
FAQ
What does Devvion's process maturity assessment include?
Devvion's assessment runs two weeks: interviews across functions, a system inventory, walk-throughs of real cases, a maturity score per process, an overhead number and a ranked list of opportunities. The fee is credited if you continue with us.
Is a maturity assessment the same as an ISO audit?
Devvion's assessment is not an audit and certifies nothing. It shows how your processes actually run and what the gaps cost. If ISO 9001 or 27001 is coming, it adds a gap list. Accredited bodies do the certifying.
How many processes should we assess at 100 people?
Devvion usually walks through eight to twelve processes in depth, at least one per function. Scoring forty lightly tells you less than scoring ten properly. The rest get a quick look through the interviews and the system inventory.
How much time does it take from our team?
Devvion asks for about 45 minutes with each person we interview, a few hours with those who walk us through real cases, and one owner who can open doors. Most of the work is ours, so daily operations keep running.
What happens after the assessment?
Devvion hands you the scores and the ranked list, and you decide. Some clients fix the first items themselves. Others ask us to map and mature the processes through consulting, then automate them through forward-deployed engineering.