Digital maturity models are widely used to support transformation; however, many remain organization-level, lack transparency, and are only weakly linked to implementation prioritization. These limitations are especially consequential in purchasing, where maturity may vary substantially across activities and sub-processes. This study develops a process-level digital maturity assessment-and-roadmapping (DEMA) artifact for purchasing. Within the broader DEMA architecture, this study develops and evaluates only the Smart Business Processes component, while retaining Digital Strategy and Infrastructure as a contextual architectural layer. Drawing on design science research and maturity model development guidance, DEMA was developed through literature synthesis, iterative expert involvement over approximately 18 months, and structured refinement conducted in approximately 20 sessions. The artifact was refined through three anonymized pilot applications in electronics manufacturing SMEs and then demonstrated through a focal case application in an electronics SME that used an ERP system but lacked a purchasing-specific digital transformation roadmap. Evaluation was utility-oriented rather than psychometric, focusing on whether the artifact could (i) generate differentiated capability profiles across purchasing subprocesses, (ii) improve item clarity, stage interpretation, and scoring logic through pilot-based refinement, and (iii) translate assessment results into feasible targets, priorities, and sequenced roadmap actions under facilitated conditions. To provide bounded but direct validation evidence, the study also included a lightweight two-rater consistency and interpretability check on a representative subset of 24 items, together with a structured diagnosis-to-roadmap traceability review of six representative items. The results showed moderate exact agreement, perfect adjacent agreement, positive weighted inter-rater agreement for ordinal ratings, and favorable interpretability scores. Together, these findings provide bounded empirical support for the artifact’s practical consistency and usability within the study’s development-oriented scope. Unlike reflective survey scales, the DEMA is evaluated here as a staged, prescriptive maturity grid. Accordingly, the methodological emphasis is on interpretability, traceability, and assessment-to-action usefulness in facilitated use rather than psychometric scale validation. The DEMA integrates a fully disclosed 70-item staged instrument with explicit scoring, dual-target setting, dependency-aware prioritization, and a structured implementation methodology. In the focal case, the artifact revealed uneven maturity profiles across capabilities, distinguished between current and target capability states, and supported the prioritization of concrete intervention areas, such as data-entry automation/RPA, digital tool budgeting, remote-access improvement, and analytics-related training. Rather than pursuing psychometric scale validation, this study presents a transparent, implementation-oriented artifact for purchasing and shows how process-level maturity diagnosis can be translated into roadmap development in guided-application settings. Therefore, the contribution is design-oriented and practice-facing rather than a claim of broad theoretical advancement or comparative superiority over existing maturity frameworks.
Batuhan Kocaoğlu (Fri,) studied this question.