Adopting Frameworks

Organizations typically take one of two approaches to adopting a process framework:

1. Full adoption/redesign—implementing a standard framework as completely as possible and using it as the organization's only enterprise process framework
2. Overlayment—linking an organization's existing framework to a global standard like APQC's PCF

Check out APQC's Process Classification Framework^SM and its industry-specific counterparts to decide if APQC's PCF could help you streamline your business. Read about the implementation strategies below to determine your next steps.

Full Adoption

Full adoption is most common among organizations without an existing framework or organizations that need a total transformation to improve performance. It is the most disruptive implementation strategy, but it can provide important long-term benefits. Standard frameworks maintained by a third party free up internal resources, and global standards make it easy to benchmark with other organizations. 

Every framework needs some degree of customization to fit the particulars of an organization. Stay as close to the original framework as possible, but plan to make changes where needed.

Overlayment

Overlayment is often the best strategy for organizations with existing custom frameworks or other models they do not want to discard. Overlayment allows employees to continue business as usual while management and executives spend time connecting the existing framework to a global standard, typically gaining a deeper sense of how the business operates and how it could function better.

Most organizations who overlay the PCF on top of their own frameworks usually do so to benchmark with other organizations. It's nearly impossible to benchmark with others when you use an entirely different language and process system. The PCF allows businesses to cross organizational and industry lines, comparing processes they didn't realize were similar and discovering new best practices.