Using the Project Management Maturity Model, 3rd Edition

Introduction

People often ask me how I came up with the idea for creating a project management maturity model (PMMM). In 1996, the International Institute for Learning (IIL) partnered with Microsoft and Nortel to sponsor a global videoconference where I discussed some of the project management best practices that companies were using. After the broadcast, I was flooded with questions, with conference participants asking me how “quickly” their company could implement some of these best practices and become good at project management. I responded to the participants that maturity and excellence in project management cannot be achieved easily or quickly without some type of strategic direction focusing on project management maturity. The direction soon became the PMMM.

In 1997, when I first prepared the foundation for the PMMM, there were very few maturity models in the marketplace. Today, there are more than 30. Every model has its pros and cons. Some models take a great deal of time to do the assessments, whereas others are fairly quick and cost-effective to use. Some models are more applicable to specific industries, such as construction or IT, whereas other models are more generic.

The PMMM was created to prepare companies for the future rather than the present. To understand this, you must first recognize what makes project management work well. Having an enterprise project management methodology does not necessarily lead to maturity. Having policies and procedures embedded ...