There are many ways to measure success: how profitable is your company? What is your project success rate? Do you have standardized management processes? Organizations change as they grow, and it’s important to adapt and scale your management processes as your business expands. A project maturity model provides a way for you to categorize and define the current state of your PMO. See how your organization measures up and how you can use a maturity model to outline future steps to greater success.
Understanding the Project Maturity Model
The Project Management Maturity Model, sometimes referred to as PMMM, allows companies to assess their competitiveness in an ever-changing market. It’s a tool for project-based businesses that want to gauge their ability to complete successful projects with structure and regularity.
The standard maturity model provides a scale against which you can measure the efficacy of your operations. A PPM maturity assessment usually involves detailed reporting, filling out surveys, and creating benchmarks to evaluate your project management success.
PMO maturity will look different depending on the types of projects you handle and your style of management. After all, maturity is subjective: the context of your work matters. How you define it will depend on your overall goals, but the basic maturity model provides a good framework for assessing your capabilities.
1. Undocumented Processes
In this initial phase, many processes are undocumented and informal. This is the natural starting point for many businesses, but more rigid structures and tighter organizations quickly become necessary as you grow in scale.
2. Structured Processes
This is where specific project management methods and tools are implemented, but are not yet perfected. The process of planning, executing, and completing projects has a framework, but it lacks depth.
3. Standardized & Repeatable Processes
As a company grows its portfolio, projects and stakeholder relationships become more complex. This is the level where project management practices have become more standard and predictable, but new needs may emerge.
4. Measured & Managed
As processes become more streamlined, decision-makers can use reporting data to direct the company. At this level, processes are nearly optimized and consistent enough that it becomes appropriate to define clear metrics by which to monitor and direct projects.
5. Optimized
This is the highest maturity score for PPM and signals that a business is ready to handle enterprise-level projects. At this level, strategies and management tools are in place to consistently deliver quality results for clients and other stakeholders. It can take years for a PMO to reach this level, but as it grows through the model, valuable lessons are learned in each phase, and the foundation is set for long-term competitive success.
What does the project maturity model teach us?
While this exact model is not one-size-fits-all, it can give you a good idea of what areas are primed for improvement.
By using a project maturity model, you can assess the current state of your PMO and identify gaps or roadblocks keeping you from progressing. Mapping out the future of your company requires having a realistic, detailed understanding of your office as it stands now.
The model can be a useful tool in designing strategies for growth and success. It can help guide decision-making efforts and assist you in defining the highest priorities for the future of your organization.
How to Create Your Own Project Maturity Model
Evaluating your PMO maturity isn’t always a simple process. In school, letter grades don’t always convey the full scope of a student’s abilities, whereas a detailed progress report with a more flexible scale may provide more insight.
It can be helpful to define what maturity in project management means for you. Align your maturity goals with the overall aspirations of the company, and come up with a model that addresses the facts that matter to you.
Establish Meaningful KPIs
PMO KPIs provide useful measures of project success and performance. The KPIs you select for your team will depend on a host of factors, so it’s important to align them with overall business goals and priorities. Too many KPIs can get distracting, while too few won’t be useful. Decide what matters most when gauging success for your company and its projects.
Set Project Standards
Standardization processes are the cornerstone of success for any PMO. Having project management methods that are organized, repeatable, and streamlined will help your PMO identify what works well and replicate that success in the future.
Have Detailed Reporting Structures
Your model is only as good as the data on which it’s based. Transparency, visibility, and accurate reporting are key to making informed decisions and drawing a roadmap for continued growth. Using the right project management software with access to detailed analytics can support an understanding of where your business stands, helping you to identify areas for improvement and capitalize on your strengths.
Measure PMO Performance & Leverage Reporting Insights with Sciforma Vantage
No matter where your company falls on the project maturity model, having access to the right information can help you take the next steps for continued growth.
Sciforma’s integrated platform gives you access to all the tools you need to understand where you are and how to get where you want to go. Access insightful analytics while tracking project timelines, managing resources, and taking advantage of collaborative features to fuel your company’s growth.
Request a demo today if you’re ready to see how Sciforma can, quite literally, take your PMO to the next level.
