E‐assessment is an umbrella term that comprises a complex array of tools of varying capacities. This paper focuses on the topic of e‐assessment from the perspective of its strategic institutional development in higher education. The paper argues that research on e‐assessment has been dominated by a focus on investigating benefits of use and adoption rather than building an understanding of development and implementation. The current paper proposes a qualitative assessment and process‐specific framework, both to investigate e‐assessment and chart its institutional development. This framework is an annual assessment life cycle, and one case illustrates its use to elaborate an institutional development agenda for e‐assessment. The institutional inquiry into e‐assessment consisted of interviews with 22 academic staff members using the assessment life cycle. The goal was to identify how technology played a role in assessment in general. The information gathered was used to construct an institutional overview of how electronic and paper‐based modes supported assessment. The overview, which used the life cycle framework, revealed a subtle interplay between assessment stakes, type, stages and modes. Initial stages in the assessment life cycle are substantively supported electronically. Middle stages (submission, marking, feedback return) present great complexity and different uses of paper and electronic modes depending on the assessment type. High‐stakes summative assessment shows a hybrid process, where both paper and electronic modes fulfil substantive roles in supporting the assessment stages. The later stages of the cycle are mainly paper based regardless of assessment type. Low‐stakes e‐assessment may be an all‐electronic process. This simplified institutional overview of the state of e‐assessment and the emphasis on the cyclical nature have helped to elaborate a differentiated development strategy for various e‐assessment forms, considering assessment type and particular stages as the foci of development.