With the evidence of project management skills as far back as the time of the building of the Pyramids and the Great Wall of China and other great wonders of the world - it is quite logical that there could have been an early model to map the progress of developing project management skills. After all, for an ancient project manager the price of failure came high!
In more recent times the concept of a project management maturity model has evolved considerably from the software industry with the need to understand and measure many variables, manage great complexity, obtain consistent results and achieve stringent delivery targets within budget.
With regard to which model is the "best" or most appropriate for any specific situation [I fully appreciate that project management professionals reading this may disagree with what I am about to say, but] I feel the far bigger challenge is actually in getting ANY model applied.
From that point on, and with director level sponsorship and support - all things are possible.
There are many maturity models [I am aware of over 35] and the dominant model is the P3M3 Model created and sponsored by the OGC [UK Office of Government and Commerce] in association the APMG [UK Association of Project Management Group.
This is a composite and enhanced model that addresses the 3 related aspects of large-scale project management and that glories in the full title of "Portfolio, Programme and Project Management Maturity Mode".
Try this test ...
In relation to your [or your client's] organisation:
- Do you use project management?
- Do you use programme management?
- Do you know the difference?
- Do you know why knowing the difference matters?
Try this simple test - review the different levels listed below based on the P3M3 maturity model - firstly in relation to project management and then secondly with programme management - and see which best describes your organisation:
- Level 0 - No process - the organisation has no project and /or programme management skills or experience
- Level 1 - Awareness process - the organisation is able to recognize projects and/or programmes - but has little structured approach to dealing with them.
- Level 2 - Repeatable process - there may be areas that are beginning to use standard approaches to projects and/or programmes but there is no consistency of approach across the organisation.
- Level 3 - Defined process - there will be a consistent set of standards being used across the organisation with clear process ownership.
- Level 4 - Managed process - the organisation monitors and measures its process efficiency, with active interventions to improve the way it delivers based largely on evidence or performance based information.
- Level 5 - Optimised process - the organisation will be focussing on optimisation of its quantitatively managed processes to take into account changing business needs and external factors.
Where you and your organisation sit on the maturity model is one of the biggest key factors in leading change that will determine your chances of success [the others are (a) the quality of leadership, and (b) the cultures in your organisation].
Why bother?
In 2003 "The Project Management Institute" came up with the following definition: "Organisational Project Management Maturity describes an organisation's overall ability to select and manage projects in a way that supports its strategic goals".
Well that all sounds very noble - but the simple rationale for having and using a project management maturity model is quite simply that projects fail! [And the same is true for programme and change management.]
A survey conducted in 2003 by the Standish Group(US)showed that 66% of IT projects are either totally abandoned or fail against a measure of budget, scope, time or quality (i.e. 'challenged'). A similar study in the UK by Computer Weekly that 84% of projects either failed or were challenged.
It has been estimated that the cost to US business of failing or abandoned IT projects runs into hundreds of billions of dollars.
Closer to home the UK government have wasted countless billions of pounds on failed projects.
At the programme level - with the wider perspective beyond a project delivery of capability to the actual realisation of a defined organisational benefit - the failure rate is a consistent 70%.
And given that every programme encompasses a signifcant change element, the same failure rate applies to any significant change management initiative.
Progress driven by pain
In most organisations the evolution of project management, programme management and change management skills typically lags far behind the development of other capabilities within the company. So the state of maturity to a large degree reflects the prevailing dominant corporate culture.
Given that companies [or more accurately directors] don't know what they dont know - the level of maturity of the company remains invisible.
In fact the very concept of a maturity model remains invisible.
So nothing changes until things go wrong - and pain is felt and someone at director level is facing an exposure as a result of a significant project failure.
This is the point at which progress becomes possible as progress needs sponsorship.
And as the focus shifts to improving performance, there are two principal targets.
(1) To improve how any specific project, programme and change is managed.
(2) To improve performance in overall organisational capability in project, programme and change management.
The purpose of this assessment is to show the extent to which the infrastructure within the organisation supports the project, programme and change management efforts.
Benefits of a structured assessment
The main benefits of the subsequent structured assessment of maturity within the organisation isn't in understanding the current level at which the company is performing, but rather in setting direction, prioritising actions and beginning cultural change.
So, taking project management as an example: an organisational project management maturity model provides guidance to an organisation regarding how to: -
- * Articulate project success
* Measure project performance
* Make the delivery of projects more predictable
* Help projects work together instead of against each other in a multi-project environment
In 2003 The Centre for Business Practices produced its 'Project Management - the State of the Industry' survey. This survey measured organisational improvement over time, as a result of project management improvement programmes.
The highlights of which show significant improvements in terms of financial performance, customer retention and satisfaction, project and process improvement, employees satisfaction and productivity, and a dramatic 70% increase in project alignment with strategic objectives.
The case for using a Culture Maturity Model
I first became aware of the significance and importance of organisational culture in 1994 when I was involved in a business development exercise with a colleague and the significance of organisational culture - initially seen solely from a business development perspective - became firmly established on our radar.
We rapidly made 5 discoveries:
(1) That we can construct a simple matrix that can enable us to very rapidly identify the type of organisational culture we are dealing with.
- The basic structure of the matrix can be used to define a template of an organisational culture, namely:
- o Type of culture
o A summary definition of the culture
o Evidence of the culture - i.e. its characteristics
o Key issues faced and addressed by that culture as can be seen in actions and behaviours
o The areas of major focus - or key areas of impact - of the culture
(2) That these cultures are obvious and instantly recognisable and indisputable from the company's own perspective [i.e. they recognise themselves as such]
(3) That these cultures as seen from a business development perspective form a maturity model. In other words, organisations migrate along a clearly identifiable and predictable path as their own business development skills evolved
(4) That the structured template of this cultural matrix is universal and transcends our original business development perspective -i.e. you can use this template to define ANY organisational culture
(5) That any organisation has more than one culture and that we are able to define a subset of characteristics of the likely orientation of these sub cultures in relation to the primary or dominant organisational culture
This template has been used on many companies and in many, many different situations over the years - overtly [with client involvement] and covertly [i.e. I use it but don't involve my client as it may not be relevant or they may not be receptive.]
Following this I formulated my own defintion of a generic maturity model:
"A maturity model [usually represented as a schematic] is a structured description that shows the stages of evolution of an organisation in transition through various developmental states. It is pre-supposed that this evolution represents progress to more developed or advanced states of learning, insight, understanding and practise."
Having established a cultural template of where your organisation is now, you can determine the template of how your organisation will look after your step change initiative and clearly see the gaps between these positions.
Navigating through the issues to where you want to be
This, in turn, enables you to determine a route that will navigate you through the issues that will arise - and especially to help you identify the full impacts of the changes on those people who will be most affected and to plan accordingly.
And in conclusion - the reason why using a cultural maturity map to understand your cultures is so important is that they are the single biggest determinant of how people in your organisation will behave - and especially in the context of a step change - and thus determine the success or failure of your initiative.
Stephen Warrilow: www.strategies-for-managing-change.com
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