Understanding Maturity Models in Project Management

I'm Harold Kersner with the International Institute for Learning. In this program we're going to be discussing briefly maturity models for project management. On the slide you see in front of you, it talks about the Microsoft video broadcast series. Microsoft and IIL sponsored a series of broadcasts on best practices and project management. When that broadcast series was completed, companies had contacted us here at IIL and asked us, become good in project management in the shortest amount of time? So we began looking at the creation of various maturity models for project management. One of the reasons why we began looking at these models is because companies were now asking their suppliers, their contractors, to demonstrate in the proposals as to how mature they were in project management. And the customers were saying, take any maturity model you see in the marketplace, use it, and show us the results. We want to see how mature your company is in project management. There are several models in the marketplace, And they all differ concerning the complexity of the model, the ease of use, the cost of using it, the time it takes to do the assessments, and how many participants must go through the model in order to come up with a valid assessment. Now, I want to discuss two models. I want to discuss a structured model, which is the one on top, and a non-structured model, which is the one on the bottom. So, we can have structured and non-structured maturity models for project management. Let's talk first of all about the non-structured maturity models. We have five life cycle phases in the non-structured maturity model. We have an embryonic stage, an executive management acceptance stage, a line management acceptance stage, a growth stage, and a maturity stage. Let's talk about each one of these stages briefly. In the embryonic stage, we recognize the need for project management. We recognize the benefits. We recognize what must be done. And quite often this recognition is not done at the top. It's done at the bottom of the organization and we have to sell middle management and senior management on the concept of project management. Once the executives realize that this is worth investigating, we then go to life cycle phase number two, executive management acceptance. That includes visible executive support, an executive understanding of project management, project sponsorship, and a willingness by the executives to possibly change the way they've been doing business. The most important word on this page is the word VOTE. visible. You and I both know you can always differentiate in a company lip service from actual support. Now why do I need executive level support? The reason is because of the next slide I need line management support. I learned a very hard lesson as a young project manager. There is no way I can succeed unless I have the line managers supporting me. Now how many How many line managers do you know of would actually support project management if they did not see their executives above them also supporting project management? So you begin to realize that executive support and line management support is essential to jumpstart the process. The next phase is entitled the growth phase. Once you have the support you need, you then develop a project management method. methodology, there's a commitment to planning, you try to minimize scope changes, and the last thing you do is to select software. I often ask students, what comes first? The development of the methodology or the selection of the software? And the correct answer is you develop a methodology first and then you find the appropriate software that fits the methodology. To select software and design a methodology around the software, is backwards and that could lead to disastrous results. The final phase is called the maturity phase. And that's when you implement cost control. You find a way of integrating cost and schedule control together, and you develop educational programs to support. project management throughout the company. This is more of an unstructured approach. Now we do have other approaches that are a little more structured. This is called the project management maturity model, and this is the one we developed here at the International Institute for Learning. The project management maturity model consists of five levels. Level one, common language. That's when you get your people certified in project management, you train them, you educate them. Allow them to become certified. Then you take these people and you ask them to develop processes for your company. A process for planning, a process for scheduling, a process for cost control. Then at level three, you take all of your processes and you put them together into what we call an enterprise project management methodology. Then we progress to level four where we actually do benchmarking against other companies and then at level five we take the knowledge we gained from the benchmarking and decide what knowledge we will put back into the singular methodology. Now we can go through each one of these. levels and discuss what's included but I will go through with you only one level level one in level one it's common language what's included what are the characteristics of common language we provide lip service to project management rather than actually having it that tells you you're still at level one there's virtually no executive level support there may be small pockets of interest somewhere throughout the company related to project management. There's no attempt to recognize the benefits of project management. People make decisions in their own self-interest rather than putting the company first. And the company has yet to discover that there's a return on investment on project management education. This tells you you're at level one. Why are there roadblocks at each one of these levels? Because there are roadblocks at every level. Some of the roadblocks at level one, there is a natural resistance to change. People say, leave well enough alone. It wasn't invented here. It doesn't apply to us, and we don't need it. These are just excuses that companies come up with as to why they should not mature in project management. We also provide you with a listing of steps you can go through to complete this level and progress to the next level. There has to be training and education to complete level one. You must have PMPs. You must understand the principles of the PMBOK guide. You have to recognize the tools that are available to support project management. And one of the benefits of using the PMBOK guide is that people will then communicate using a common project management language. There are also... difficulties at each one of these levels. For example, at level one, if I indicated high risk, medium risk, and low risk as a degree of difficulty, I consider this a medium risk because it does require or may require some sort of cultural change. And we can go through steps like this for each one of the five levels. Once you get to level five, you normally do not repeat level. 1 and 2 unless you may have new employees in the company. Instead, levels 3, 4, and 5 become a cycle of continuous improvement. Some of the factors that we consider in selecting maturity models, the complexity of the model, the ease by which it can be used, the cost that's not only the purchase cost but the cost that we will incur in using it. it to assess our people, the time required, whether or not the PMO should be actively involved and one of the things that I've discovered in one of my books is that the PMO can drastically accelerate the maturity toward project management using these models. With a PMO in place, the steps go through faster than if you do not have a PMO in place. And the last step that you might want to consider is to assess the quality of the PMO. CIDA is the technical complexity of the assessment instruments and whether or not they can be custom designed to your company. In case you're looking for any additional information on maturity models, information can be identified in various chapters in these five books here that were authored by myself. And some of these were co-authored by myself and Frank Salatas. In case you want additional products or services related to these, we do offer white papers, webinars, and podcasts on several products like the one you just saw. These can be attained by going to IIL's website, IIL.com. This is Harold Kersner. Thank you.

Microsoft and IIL sponsored a series of broadcasts on best practices and project management. When that broadcast series was completed, companies had contacted us here at IIL and asked us, become good in project management in the shortest amount of time? So we began looking at the creation of various maturity models for project management.

One of the reasons why we began looking at these models is because companies were now asking their suppliers, their contractors, to demonstrate in the proposals as to how mature they were in project management. And the customers were saying, take any maturity model you see in the marketplace, use it, and show us the results. We want to see how mature your company is in project management.

There are several models in the marketplace, And they all differ concerning the complexity of the model, the ease of use, the cost of using it, the time it takes to do the assessments, and how many participants must go through the model in order to come up with a valid assessment. Now, I want to discuss two models. I want to discuss a structured model, which is the one on top, and a non-structured model, which is the one on the bottom. So, we can have structured and non-structured maturity models for project management.

Let's talk first of all about the non-structured maturity models. We have five life cycle phases in the non-structured maturity model. We have an embryonic stage, an executive management acceptance stage, a line management acceptance stage, a growth stage, and a maturity stage. Let's talk about each one of these stages briefly. In the embryonic stage, we recognize the need for project management.

We recognize the benefits. We recognize what must be done. And quite often this recognition is not done at the top.

It's done at the bottom of the organization and we have to sell middle management and senior management on the concept of project management. Once the executives realize that this is worth investigating, we then go to life cycle phase number two, executive management acceptance. That includes visible executive support, an executive understanding of project management, project sponsorship, and a willingness by the executives to possibly change the way they've been doing business. The most important word on this page is the word VOTE. visible.

You and I both know you can always differentiate in a company lip service from actual support. Now why do I need executive level support? The reason is because of the next slide I need line management support. I learned a very hard lesson as a young project manager.

There is no way I can succeed unless I have the line managers supporting me. Now how many How many line managers do you know of would actually support project management if they did not see their executives above them also supporting project management? So you begin to realize that executive support and line management support is essential to jumpstart the process. The next phase is entitled the growth phase.

Once you have the support you need, you then develop a project management method. methodology, there's a commitment to planning, you try to minimize scope changes, and the last thing you do is to select software. I often ask students, what comes first?

The development of the methodology or the selection of the software? And the correct answer is you develop a methodology first and then you find the appropriate software that fits the methodology. To select software and design a methodology around the software, is backwards and that could lead to disastrous results. The final phase is called the maturity phase. And that's when you implement cost control.

You find a way of integrating cost and schedule control together, and you develop educational programs to support. project management throughout the company. This is more of an unstructured approach.

Now we do have other approaches that are a little more structured. This is called the project management maturity model, and this is the one we developed here at the International Institute for Learning. The project management maturity model consists of five levels. Level one, common language. That's when you get your people certified in project management, you train them, you educate them.

Allow them to become certified. Then you take these people and you ask them to develop processes for your company. A process for planning, a process for scheduling, a process for cost control.

Then at level three, you take all of your processes and you put them together into what we call an enterprise project management methodology. Then we progress to level four where we actually do benchmarking against other companies and then at level five we take the knowledge we gained from the benchmarking and decide what knowledge we will put back into the singular methodology. Now we can go through each one of these.

levels and discuss what's included but I will go through with you only one level level one in level one it's common language what's included what are the characteristics of common language we provide lip service to project management rather than actually having it that tells you you're still at level one there's virtually no executive level support there may be small pockets of interest somewhere throughout the company related to project management. There's no attempt to recognize the benefits of project management. People make decisions in their own self-interest rather than putting the company first.

And the company has yet to discover that there's a return on investment on project management education. This tells you you're at level one. Why are there roadblocks at each one of these levels? Because there are roadblocks at every level.

Some of the roadblocks at level one, there is a natural resistance to change. People say, leave well enough alone. It wasn't invented here. It doesn't apply to us, and we don't need it.

These are just excuses that companies come up with as to why they should not mature in project management. We also provide you with a listing of steps you can go through to complete this level and progress to the next level. There has to be training and education to complete level one.

You must have PMPs. You must understand the principles of the PMBOK guide. You have to recognize the tools that are available to support project management. And one of the benefits of using the PMBOK guide is that people will then communicate using a common project management language. There are also...

difficulties at each one of these levels. For example, at level one, if I indicated high risk, medium risk, and low risk as a degree of difficulty, I consider this a medium risk because it does require or may require some sort of cultural change. And we can go through steps like this for each one of the five levels. Once you get to level five, you normally do not repeat level.

1 and 2 unless you may have new employees in the company. Instead, levels 3, 4, and 5 become a cycle of continuous improvement. Some of the factors that we consider in selecting maturity models, the complexity of the model, the ease by which it can be used, the cost that's not only the purchase cost but the cost that we will incur in using it.

it to assess our people, the time required, whether or not the PMO should be actively involved and one of the things that I've discovered in one of my books is that the PMO can drastically accelerate the maturity toward project management using these models. With a PMO in place, the steps go through faster than if you do not have a PMO in place. And the last step that you might want to consider is to assess the quality of the PMO.

CIDA is the technical complexity of the assessment instruments and whether or not they can be custom designed to your company. In case you're looking for any additional information on maturity models, information can be identified in various chapters in these five books here that were authored by myself. And some of these were co-authored by myself and Frank Salatas. In case you want additional products or services related to these, we do offer white papers, webinars, and podcasts on several products like the one you just saw. These can be attained by going to IIL's website, IIL.com.

This is Harold Kersner. Thank you.

Transcript for:Understanding Maturity Models in Project Management

Transcript for:
Understanding Maturity Models in Project Management