Portfolio, program and project management's maturity level; it is consist of five maturity levels:
Level1: "Getting started, management awareness and initial process".
Level2: "Developing, Focusing, repeatable and knowledge process."
Level3: "Complying, practicing, competence and defined process."
Level4: "Sustaining, exploiting, managed and excellence process".
Level5: "Advocating, transforming and optimized process".
The importance of the maturity assessment model is to help the organization to assess its level in absolute terms and then derive a plan to rise up to the next level of maturity.
The areas that management needs to focus on to develop the maturity level are:
- Ensure best resources allocations regarding to the quantity and competences.
- Ensure that all undertake projects are alignment to organization strategy and examine the degree of strategy linkage.
- Visibility to the project spending if it's within the budget boundary?
- Is the number of undertaken projects enough for the strategy to succeed?
- Are the usage of organization inventory have been used in effective way?
The benefits of the P3M3 maturity assessment method are setting the direction to the next level, prioritizing actions, building the culture of change, rather than, understanding the current level of maturity. The structured assessment process should be repeatable, based on consisted scales and some benchmarking from other organizations used as an initiated points to measure the timely progress and identify next steps to the next level.
Each organization needs to determine the value of the minimum level of maturity, whatever the measuring scales were they should be specific focus and measurable goals, and then should determine the value related with the next level, in this way, they can measure the benefits and the pace of progress; it is also beneficial to synchronize the project management maturity with the other organization process maturity to compare the progress of maturity and investigate the impact of each on others if any.
It is imperative that all the measurements of maturity progress should be measured on time scale; otherwise, it will be meaningless and leading to confusion and mistrust.
The organization should strive to fill the weakness area pockets and advancing those provides good results.
The process of the assessments should include a personnel interviews and survey, collection and evaluation of the organization artifacts; benchmarks base points to establish standards.
2- Changes occurs as a process not as an event, it doesn't happen suddenly but it takes time, changes happen in three stages; current, transit and future where we are trying to reach, there are seven levels of change;
Level1: "Effectiveness - doing the right things": establish expectations, form the team: the proper person in proper position,
Level2:"Efficiency - doing the right things right": using new tools and techniques to do things in right way.
Level3: "Improving- doing things better": finding new ideas, orientation with new environment, climate and people.
Level4: "cutting- Letting away old things": remove old habits, old ways of doing things, moving to new standards.
Level5: "Copying- Doing things others are doing": Learning new things, observing and marking what other doings.
Level6: "Different - Doing things no one else is doing": Doing things differently, creating new things.
Level7: "Impossible- Doing things that can't be done": Break out the impossible!
3- Financial managements in DFCU used good organization culture to help in project management maturity rather than depending on tools and techniques.
In the beginning they didn't have specific methodology, no project managers actively and formally involved in the projects and no proper IT resources to depend on it. They found three guiding principles, they found a common language that all can relate to during day to day activities; Make their day, Make it easy and Be an expert, these three rules found basic common language and furthermore, they were able to make continuous improvements in so many ways.
They were reconciled by all financial brand actions they adopted; voice, promise, goals, clarity, teamwork, protect, respect, responsibility, empowerment, attitude, quality, image and pride.
The results since 2000 were improved operational efficiency, launched new products, opened new branches and get better in project managements execution.