Many publications about BOOTSTRAP deal with the assessment process, the underlying BOOTSTRAP process architecture, and the evaluation approach calculating strengths and weaknesses profiles of organisations. The author has extensively performed research over the last 8 years continuously working on the refinement of the BOOTSTRAP assessment process and focussing on business based improvement planning.

Aoutlined by well known organisations the effort for assessment forms only 3-5% of the overall improvement effort needed. Therefore any assessment is only a starting point and the quality of the action plan as the result of the assessment is of critical importance for the success or failure of the improvement initiative. It is not enough to do an assessment and it is the remaining 95-97 % of the improvement effort to achieve top management commitment, to motivate practitioners for doing the improvement actions, for actually carrying out the improvement projects, and for measuring the success or failure.

This article specifically discusses the author's experience with the use of the BOOTSTRAP assessment process and maturity profiles for establishing business based and goal driven action plans which ensure a successful performance as much as possible. The article contains case studies from different organisations to illustrate different approaches because one and the same situation in different environments requires different (and adapted) actions.