Effective Project Management: Traditional, Agile, Extreme, Sixth Edition

Defining Process and Practice Maturity

The Capability Maturity Model Integrated (CMMI) supersedes the Capability Maturity Model (CMM), which was first introduced by the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) at Carnegie Mellon University in 1987. These models have become the de facto standard for measuring the maturity of any process or steps in a process. There are several models in practice, and with the exception of the PMI Organizational Project Management Maturity Model (OPM3), they all have the CMM or CMMI as their conceptual foundation. Most models define five levels of maturity, which are described in this section as they pertain to project management processes and practices.

Level 1: Ad Hoc or Informal

Basically everyone is managing projects their own way. They may be using tools, templates, or processes that they developed, discovered, or borrowed and have been in their toolkits for years. There may be some common practices in the organization, but these are not fully documented or supported — just expected. I have often seen organizations provide a collection of templates as suggestions, not requirements. In effect the “what should be done” is stated, but not the “how to do it.” The PMBOK has many of these characteristics and leaves it to the organization to specify the “how.”

Level 2: Documented Processes

At Level 2 maturity, the tools, templates, and processes for managing projects have been defined and documented. Level 2 is an interesting level of maturity, not so ...