Wednesday, 18 July 2007

Aligning enterprise PM skills with Capability Maturity Model (CMM)

In the ongoing endeavour to raise the standard in PM Practitioner capability across Professional Services, we hit upon the concept of using the Capability Maturity Model from Application Process Design to define project management capabilities at the Enterprise level:

[Some abbreviations: PS - Professional Services, SME - Subject Matter Expert, TPG - Technical Project Group, TPT - Technical Project Type; Many TPT's could be managed under a TPG of PM's]

  1. Level 1 - Initial Limited knowledge of PM experience versus technical project type. Mainly anecdotal, local, unqualified knowledge. No organisational knowledge repository.
  2. Level 2 - Repeatable Initial limited lists created for active TPG's only, based on TPG lead knowledge and assessment of PS database. Likely number of trusted practitioners ~20 per TPG. Limited information on the size and nature of projects managed, or the PM's track record/success. Data mainly used to create initial practitioner network to promote knowledge sharing, and identify a few potential SMEs.
  3. Level 3 – Defined Individual consultation and increase in practitioner numbers. Data now being used to align staff to projects based on technical capability (smart resourcing).Still aligned to TPGs only.
  4. Level 4 Managed Assessment of individuals plus broadening to other non-TPG TPTs. Ability for staff to maintain own experience data - implies PS-wide database/web site.
  5. Level 5 - Optimised Mature data with all TPTs covered. Project success/reference data included. Data used routinely in staff assignments, career planning and development, recruitment planning. Steady State.

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