This document is part of our work on transforming project management practice and the future of work. We present an overview of project management maturity, including definition and value. We will also introduce a self-assessment tool and share a link so you can download the tool.
Introduction
We advocate Business-Integrated Project Management. The core idea is that project management must be integrated with the organization’s operations and activities. Accordingly, organizations should consider institutionalizing project management as a core organizational function organized through a project management division (PMD) led by a chief project officer (CPO).
Our book Vision Realized documented the current state of practice and the need for a transformative change. We also offered the project management function as an essential step toward higher maturity and performance. In the book, we shared studies from various institutions, including the University of California-Berkeley, PM Solutions, Independent Project Analysis, and the project management associations like IPMA®, PMI®, and GPM®, about the strategic value of project management and the direct correlation between higher maturity and higher performance.
Project Management Maturity
Definition
Project management maturity is a concept that assesses the maturity of the project management practice within an organization. It is often linked to a scale and scoring model that defines the level of development of the organizational project management system. Key aspects include:
- Development Level: It measures how developed and sophisticated an organization’s project management processes and practices are.
- Compliance and Performance: Maturity is not only about the existence of a project management system but also the degree of compliance with best practices and the performance outcomes achieved.
Maturity Models
There is no unified maturity model, but many organizations use a model with five levels, ranging from 1 to 5, with some including level 0 as a starting point.
Value of Project Management Maturity
The following image is a simplified graphic that shows the positive impact of a higher level of project management maturity.
In addition, the following is another illustration based on the University of California study.
Full Assessments of PM Maturity
Assessing project management maturity involves evaluating the various components of an organization’s project management system to determine its level of development and effectiveness. Here are the key steps typically involved in the assessment process:
- Define Maturity Model: Choose an appropriate model that suits the organization’s needs. Many models use a scale from 1 to 5, with one being the least mature and five being the most mature.
- Evaluate Processes and Practices: Examine the existing project management processes, methodologies, and practices to assess their alignment with best practices and standards.
- Assess Compliance and Performance: Determine the degree of compliance with established processes and the performance outcomes achieved. This includes evaluating how well projects meet their objectives, timelines, and budgets.
- Identify Gaps and Areas for Improvement: Identify any gaps or weaknesses in the current project management system and areas for improvement.
- Benchmark Against Industry Standards: Compare the organization’s project management maturity against industry standards or similar organizations to understand its relative position.
- Develop an Improvement Plan: Based on the assessment findings, create a plan to enhance project management maturity, focusing on areas that will deliver the most significant impact.
By conducting a thorough assessment, organizations can gain insight into their project management capabilities and take steps to improve their maturity, leading to better project outcomes and alignment with strategic goals.
As described here, a thorough and detailed assessment is expensive and often requires hiring specialized consultants. However, here we offer an alternative self-assessment model as a starting point.
The Executive Toolkit
This document guides executives through an abbreviated self-assessment of their organization’s maturity. This assessment will help organizations quickly identify gaps and areas for improvement without spending tens of thousands of dollars.
The toolkit is an abbreviated model to help you determine the gaps in your organizational project management system. However, it is not an assessment of compliance. It only assesses whether a process exists or not, and its level of development.
This would be the starting point for finding the gaps. Next, an organization can put a plan in place to close the gaps. Once all the priority gaps are closed, the next level would be to assess compliance, but this is outside the scope of this toolkit.
To access the toolkit, please Click Here.
Do you need help or guidance? Please check our services page or contact us.
