Lately, everyone as if they have agreed between themselves, are asking me about the maturity of project management in the organization. So the question is, what is basically the maturity of project management? How is it measured? Is it measured?
When we talk about the maturity of a process or methodology, what project management basically is, it can be measured easily enough by self-assessment:
what level of documentation is ready: is there only process guidelines prepared? Or is there a complete description of the process ready? The most detailed step is - instructions - is it implemented?
how long does the process exist? This question helps to assess whether the process has passed the adaptation phase, during which the steps of the process described in the document are adapted to real situations that may not have been foreseen by the creators of the process
how is the process introduced to people who have newly joined the organization? Do they learn from the instructions? Are they assigned a mentor who tells about the steps of the process (this part is very related to the knowledge management, but we will touch it next time)? How are changes in the process presented to people? How is the proper level of knowledge maintained over the course of the year?
does the process have the standard templates and tools to perform various steps?
is there a role of the process owner?
... and many other questions that must be thought through when trying to decide whether existing process or practice is mature enough.
However, when we talk about the maturity of project management practices, a very important element is the understanding of which cycle the organization is in and in what environment the organization operates.
Why is this important? The answer is very simple when we are looking from the practical point of view.
Project management guidelines in a newly established organization may indicate that at the current stage of the organization- lifecycle, the practice of project management is at the level that is needed. In the same way, if an organization is stable, constantly growing and functioning, for some time and let's say it only has project management guidelines for 5 years - this may indicate that the practice is too weak for this type of organization and over the time it can become one of the obstacles to successful growth.
When we try to compare ourselves to others, or whether we are strong in the field of project management, let's not forget that the environment in which we operate is always important.
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