Organizational Project Organizational Project Management Maturity:  Management Maturity:  

Roadmap to Success  Roadmap to Success 

Why Organizational Maturity? 

Just as individuals benefit from achieving personal maturity, organizations benefit from organizational maturity.

Organizational maturity enables an organization to: Translate organizational strategy into success •Drive business improvement •Gain competitive edge

“All organizations should continually look for ways to improve – that’s just a law of economics, a matter of competitive survival”

     -Jay Douglas, Manager, Business DevelopmentCarnegie Mellon Software Engineering Institute, PA

Definitions Organizational Maturity is the process of adopting and

refining business processes to ensure success  

Project Management Maturity is more specifically an organization’s level of achievement with consistent methods

and repeatable delivery of project management goals  

 A project management maturity model allows an organization to examine its strengths and weaknesses and

develop a maturity assessment 

Traditional Organizational Maturity Model 

Level 1: Initial

Level 2: Repeatable

Level 3: Defined

Level 4: Managed

Level 5: Optimized

Maturity Level 1: Initial  

Features:

“Fire Fighting is the way of Life”

Success depends upon individual heroics

Few stable processes exist or used

The introduction of new technology is risky

Data collection and analysis are ad-hoc  

 Steps to go to next level:

An organization must focus on the fundamentals

 Establish basic project management concepts,

training and simple processes

Maturity Level 2: Repeatable  

Features:

• Success depends on management system support •  Documented processes at project level •  Technology supports established stable practices •  Planning and management data is used by

individual projects  Steps to go to next level:

• Formalize and document the PM processes •  Customize training according to the roles •  Work toward integrated management processes

Maturity Level 3: Defined  Features:

• Project groups work together • Training is planned and provided according to the

roles • Integrated management and engineering processes

are used across the organization • New technologies are evaluated on a qualitative basis • Data is systematically shared across projects

 Steps to go to next level:

• Establish standardized data definition and collection processes across the organization

• Encourage team work within and across the projects • Collect project planning and management data

across the organization

Maturity Level 4: Managed  

Features:• A strong sense of teamwork exists within each

project • Processes are quantitatively understood and

stabilized • New technologies are evaluated on the

quantitative basis • Data definition and collection are standardized

across the organization  Steps to go to next level:• Establish process improvement teams • Perform trend analysis on data gathered

Maturity Level 5: Optimized  

Features:

• A strong sense of teamwork exists across the organization

• Processes are continuously and systematically improved

• New technologies are proactively pursued and deployed

• Data is used to evaluate and select process improvements

 

Keep up the good work!!!! 

Continuous Improvement 

How to determine the organizational Project Management maturity level? 

There are many maturity models (OPM3, CMM, etc.) to evaluate and track an organization

Some questions to consider are: Are the business processes within the organization repeatable?Is any project methodology followed? Is any project data captured? Any Software tools used? How are projects chosen and initiated? How are project roles determined? How is project information communicated?How are the executives in the organization kept informed on the projects?Are there certified project managers in the organization?

 

When should the organization start looking to improve? 

As soon as possible  

One can prevent problems now or repair damages later.

And “later” always has latent costs.  

In SEI’s study of six sample organizations, companies that measured maturity achieved :          - 35 % increase in productivity          - 19 %decrease in time to market           - 39 % reduction in post-release defects 

                      -Mike Phillips, Program Manager                Capability Maturity Model Integration, SEI 

How does an organization determine its current level of maturity? 

By doing the assessment   

To navigate the journey of performance improvement, you must know where you are

and how to get where you want to be. 

How to do the assessment? 

Project Management experts perform the maturity assessment by:

•Using proven tools like OPM 3 or PMMM •Staff interviews •Artifact evaluation •Survey evaluation •Benchmarking in comparison to established standards

 The current maturity is determined by performing a

detailed maturity assessment of organization’s capability, weaknesses, and overall business goals 

Maturity Models Maturity models serve as objective scorecards to

measure and track progress.

Here are some common maturity models: • Organizational Project Management Maturity Model

(OPM3) - PMI • Project Management Maturity Model (PMMM) - Kerzner • Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) – SEI • ESI International’s Project Framework - ESI

 The best model is the one that can easily connect to

real needs of the organization 

Benefits of Maturity Models • Provide a roadmap for strategic improvement • Allow to look into the organization’s strength

and weakness • Assess organization’s project management

against agreed criteria • Set realistic targets for improvement • Measure progress towards enhanced

capability • Identify the links between needs and real

education requirements

Think of the maturity model as a corporate stethoscope that can assess and diagnose

organization’s health 

Success Factors  • Consistent effort • Strong executive management support • Emphasis on project management best practices • Setting reasonable goals • Implementing changes step by step • Project management training • Sharing knowledge across the organization • Anticipating incremental improvement

 Maturity is an on-going process, Organizations must

be willing to stay abreast of changes in the field of project management, seek out best practices

and implement these changes.