Once an organization entering the realm of project management addresses its immediate needs, an important question comes to light: Now what? Successful project management typically leads to significant growth for organizations, which naturally prompts the need for more complex approaches over time. However, to meet this demand, organizations must lay a firm foundation to support their scaling needs. That’s where a PPM maturity assessment can come in handy.
By measuring the maturity of your current project management systems, you can get a sense of what’s working and what isn’t. You can also ensure that you’ve established the building blocks that your organization will need to eventually launch into high-level enterprise project portfolio management.
What is a PPM Maturity Assessment?
A project portfolio management (PPM) maturity assessment is a comprehensive evaluation of an organization’s ability to manage projects and portfolios, including the resources and technology that support them.
Most maturity assessments gather information on PPM practices through a self-administered questionnaire.
Depending on your organizational goals, your PPM maturity assessment might draw from best practices across a variety of categories, including:
- Portfolio and PMO governance
- Portfolio prioritization and optimization
- Portfolio data insights and analysis
- Strategic planning
- Project and portfolio performance management
- Resource and capacity management
What can you learn from a PMO maturity assessment?
After taking a maturity assessment, you should have a maturity score, i.e., a quantifiable representation of your PMO’s maturity level.
Your total score will likely depend on several sub-scores from different areas of focus. These scores will point to areas where your PMO needs extra support.
However, the process of taking the assessment can be enlightening, too. Considering what metrics of success look like through the lens of your operational systems will help you establish where you currently are and where you want your PMO to be.
Before Your Assessment: Define a PPM Maturity Model
There is no single answer for what a mature PMO looks like. Likewise, there is no one PPM maturity assessment that’s considered the gold standard. This is for a good reason – how maturity is achieved can vary significantly from one industry to another.
While the nature of assessments and their focuses may vary, one thing remains consistent: our current understanding of PMO efficiency stems from the same general PPM maturity model. The model breaks the journey from basic project management to enterprise PPM into five main phases:
Level 1: Initial
At this stage, PPM maturity is low or nonexistent. Organizations don’t consciously choose to be at this level of maturity; it’s the result of informal and organic work processes that emerge from the very beginning. However, these processes quickly become inadequate as organizations scale.
Level 2: Defined
At this point, project management tools and methodologies are introduced to help organizations better manage their resources, time, and deliverables. This stage often involves creating schedules, allocating budgets, and developing standardized systems for streamlining work tasks.
Level 3: Standardized
As business interactions continue to increase and become more complex, the need for consolidation grows, too. Integrating data-driven insights becomes key here to support new needs like resource and capacity management, work prioritization, and demand management. As a result, the creation of programs is common.
Level 4: Managed
Portfolios of programs or projects are successfully utilized to facilitate effective management of the work that’s required to meet strategic business goals. Senior executives can rely on business intelligence and meta data to make informed managerial decisions.
Level 5: Optimized
This is the highest level of PPM maturity, and it’s when an organization is best suited to support an EPMO. All of the tools, techniques, and protocols are in place to ensure that portfolio strategy aligns with an organization’s long-term goals. As such, PPM leaders can zoom out to the enterprise level to measure and manage the delivery of work at the project and program levels.
Organizations can progress through this roadmap to go from basic task management to complete, end-to-end portfolio management. So, where does your PMO fit on the maturity spectrum?
Sample PPM Maturity Assessment Questions & Considerations
Below is a sample assessment based on common measures of PMO maturity from top project management professionals. For each response that you feel is true for your organization, gain one point.
Next, you can compare your total across all five categories to the maturity model above to get an idea of where your team currently stands.
Governance
- The project management office can effectively manage compliance issues, risk prevention and response, and internal governance
- The PMO actively contributes to the development of strategy
- The PMO can consistently measure and review project, portfolio, and program performance
Operations
- The PMO uses tools, practices, and PPM methodologies that align with organizational goals
- Adapting to different projects and teams with appropriate tools or practices is easy for PPM teams
- The PMO has standardized and documented work procedures, processes, policies, etc.
Resource & Capacity Management
- PPM leaders can adequately identify, allocate, and manage organizational resources, including people, finances, tech, etc.
- The PMO increases the visibility of the project lifecycle to facilitate the appropriate allocation and utilization of resources
- The PMO ensures that team members are not overbooked and have the resources and support they need to deliver on project goals
Strategic Alignment & Integration
- The PMO successfully manages project integration (which includes coordinating resources, tasks, etc.)
- PMO processes are implemented across a variety of business functions and departments
- PPM leaders align initiatives and KPIs to organizational strategy and regularly engage with executive leadership to communicate project results or milestones
Data & Technology
- Project and portfolio teams use the latest project management tools to streamline tasks
- The PMO can identify and implement portfolio-, project-, and program-level tech solutions to support alignment
- The PMO successfully utilizes data to make evidence-based recommendations and decisions at the enterprise level
Check Your Score
Add up the total number of points that apply to your PMO to see how it ranks in terms of maturity.
Out of 18 Total Questions:
- 0 to 2 – Initial
- 3 to 5 – Defined
- 6 to 9 – Standardized
- 10 to 12 – Managed
- 13 to 15 – Optimized
Capture & Boost PMO Maturity with Sciforma Vantage
No matter where your PMO is at, you can ensure its growth and boost its maturity with the right tech tools.
Sciforma Vantage is optimized to support strategic enterprise PMO development with scalable tools that you can tailor to fit your current needs. Then, as things change over time, Sciforma Vantage adapts with you, allowing your team to realize and follow through on goals big and small.
To learn more about how our PPM software can help your team, request a demo today!
