Project Management Maturity Model

A lot of companies are too heavily focused on efforts like business projects, IT assessments, Application Rationalization, IT Strategy etc and many a time lose track of how their project management processes are faring. Albeit, other tracks of work are necessary, it is equally important to understand where their organizations stand w.r.t project management maturity. A project management maturity model allows an organization to examine its strengths/weaknesses and develop ways to continuously improve business outcomes. Maturity models are frameworks for helping organization improve their processes and systems.

Now, let’s look at the maturity curve –

Now, let’s look at each of these Levels in detail –

Most of the organizations are either at Level-1 or Level-2, meaning, they are still working on getting the PM processes in order.

Benefits of Maturity Model:
Maturity model assessment helps assess and diagnose organizations health, along with several strategic benefits:

• Provide a roadmap for strategic improvement
• Allow to look into the organization’s strength and weakness
• Helps organizations get answers to strategically important questions like:
  • How effective are PM efforts in our organization?
  • How well has PM been integrated into our business?
  • Is PM a competitive strategy for higher quality & greater customer satisfaction?
  • Are we using the right methods, tools and technologies?
  • What are our competitors doing?

Answering all these will help organizations develop capabilities in project and program management.

How does an organization determine its current level of maturity? By doing an assessment.

How to do maturity assessments? By

• Staff face-to-face interviews
• Business and Technical project artifact evaluation
• Surveys
• Benchmarking (vs. industry standards)

An excellent article on how to conduct assessments along with sample questionnaire can be found project management maturity model – conducting_assessment. Although dated, but still provides a good notes for assessment.

Which models to use?
Three well-defined ‘maturity models’ are internationally available, and each has its own purpose:

1. P3M3 (Portfolio, Programme & Project Management Maturity Model) is the newest model – developed by OGC
2. Capability Maturity Model® Integration (CMMI®) – developed by the SEI to assist organizations to improve their processes for developing and maintaining the products and services of the organization
3. Organizational Project Management Maturity Model (OPM3®) – developed by the PMI to assist organizations to improve their capabilities for managing projects, programs and portfolios, leading to business improvement

Reading through all of this could be overwhelming and at times confusing. So, it is suggested that one start with OPM3, which is considered fairly easy to understand and implement.

As with any project, this effort needs a strong executive management support and discipline by all parties. Remember, maturity is an ongoing process, Organizations must be willing to stay abreast of changes in the field of project management, seek out industry leading practices and implement these changes.

Where is your organization on maturity level? Time for PMs to ask this question and spearhead an initiative!

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