Overcoming Common Framework Adoption Challenges

Process frameworks are valuable tools for any organization. Among other benefits, process frameworks provide a common language for processes across an organization, support strong process governance, facilitate content management for process documentation, and help organizations diminish redundancies in their process work. Like any tool, however, process frameworks are not without their limitations. 

In March of 2025, APQC conducted the Best Practices in Process Frameworks survey to learn how organizations are using process frameworks, common implementation practices, and the challenges involved. When asked about the most significant challenges for process framework adoption, respondents from a variety of industries identified the challenges of buy-in and engagement, alignment and purpose, and limitations of the framework itself.

This article focuses on the first two challenges, which is where most organizations tend to struggle.