project management work

There are a number of things to consider when deciding what level of maturity to aim for.

Why are you wanting to increase your level of maturity in this space?

-Some might be wanting to do it simply as a continuous improvement strategy.

Some may be having issues with the performance of their program and project delivery or portfolio investment returns

Others may need it to be competitive in a market that looks at the P3M3 levels of organisations in the tendering process

Others may be required to undergo a mandatory audit – as did the Qld Govt in 2012.

One organisation that I have spoken with has noted that their environment has become increasingly fiscally constrained and as such funding is much more competitive. They want to increase certain sections of their maturity, specifically relating to benefits management, business case and blueprint development – so that they can be more competitive in seeking funding for initiatives. So in this case they are not necessarily trying to improve their maturity as a whole, but an aspect of it. In doing this however, it is likely that they will have an increase in maturity in other areas as well.

We need to know where you are now to assist in deciding where you want to go. This is where going through an assessment is essential and I do believe in this being independent. You can self assess but this will always be impacted with bias. You need to baseline.

What are you working with? What is your organisational context? What resources do you have both budget and people? Do you have authentic sponsorship or are your leaders just ticking a mandate off? What’s your organisational culture like, are they open to P3 management or are they likely to see effort to increase maturity as unnecessary overhead?

So when we went through this process we were fortunate to have an authentic sponsor, we had a culture of project and program delivery so the staff understood the value of the practice (and I do say practice rather than methodology – as if you have experienced practitioners, they will argue methodology with you – this is a good thing!). We already had a number of the tools and processes in place it was just a matter of fine tuning in a number of areas. And we had a bit of a mandate as well – so I think the environment was the perfect storm for us. So we could aim high and put in place a rigorous process and procedures that drove our maturity.

So where would this not work. Again in an environment whereby the culture is very different, where there hasn’t been a focus on consistency or comparison across initiatives, where the practice, language and tools of portfolio, program and project management are likely to be seen as unnecessary overhead. And lets be clear these may not be two different organisations but could be two areas within the same organisation. For example perhaps the Information Services branch who are experienced at program and project delivery versus another branch within the organisation for example customer services who do not traditionally utilise program and project management methodologies to deliver their work outcomes. So if you were wanting to raise the maturity across both of these areas you would likely require two different approaches.

This leads to one of the key learnings - you should look at driving P3 Maturity as a Change Management Initiative – because the benefits are largely associated with adoption and usage.

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Project management maturity model

Level 1

Common language

Level 2

Common processes

Level 3

Singular Methodology

Level 4

Benchmarking

Level 5

Continuous improvement

Basic knowledge

Process definition

Process control

Process improvement

Kerzner p1071