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Organisational Maturity:

Have you ever wondered if you are the project manager at fault? I bet you have. Let's face it, if anything goes wrong with the project, the project manager is ultimately responsible. But have you ever thought that most of the problems could be due to a lack of organisational maturity? Think about it, you are doing everything by the book but the goal posts keep moving. There is lack of support from management, the processes are not clearly defined, there is resentment from internal departments and there is no real direction from the organisation especially when it comes to aligning the strategic business objectives with the project ones.

So what is the problem? It maybe that the organisation lacks competency and not the project manager. So let's look at seeing if we can identify the organisational maturity.

Basically there are four levels of organisation maturity:

  1. Seat of the pants
  2. Aware
  3. Competent
  4. Best practice
If you are having a hard time then the organisation could be at level 1 or 2. However, if you love your work and everything is working for you then, hey, your organisation could be at level 3 or 4.

So how do we define what level the organisation is at?

Seat of the pants

  • Are you winging your projects?
  • Do you know who your stakeholders are?
  • Is there sufficient planning?
  • Do you have an approved definition?
  • Do you know the benefits?
  • Is your success rate less than 40%

Aware

OK so there might be a formal initialisation and approval of plans
  • But are you following a methodology?
  • Are you managing stakeholders?
  • Are your projects business driven?
  • Is you success rate less than 60%?

Competent

  • Methodology well established and supported
  • Stakeholders are well managed who all understand their roles and responsibilities
  • Risks are clearly defined and managed
  • Project management is accepted and supported throughout the organisation
  • Success rate is less than 75%

Best practice

  • Formal improvement program in place
  • High risk projects are a piece of cake
  • Metrics in place
  • Mentor program in place
    You are respected as a project manager
  • Success rate better than 75%
Once you have determined your organisational maturity, a plan can be put into place to move up a notch or two. Organisational maturity is something the most senior managers have to be involved with. Ignore it and your going nowhere fast.

Project Management | Organisational Maturity | Project Management Processes | Project Management Functions

Graham © 2006