World Monitor Magazine WM_KIOGE 2018_Web | Page 16
EXPERT OPINION
Creating organisational
maturity
There are many websites, books, training courses or other sources
of information available that provide us ways we can improve.
We all want to improve our appearance, our job performance, our
relationships and so on.
Marina Kostanian,
Construction
Consulting Partner,
Deloitte Caspian Region
Project managers probably want to be
more efficient, and companies too want to
increase their return on investment by doing
things more professionally and efficiently.
In other words, we are all striving for the
best, and to succeed we need to have a
plan to continuously improve our ability
to gather the right tools, build realistic
plans and overcome challenges. With all
this in mind, let’s take a look at the basic
attributes of organizational maturity.
The degree to which a business practices
project management is referred to
as organization project management
maturity. There are several management
tools and programs available offering
guidance on organizational maturity. They
are designed to take processes from an
unpredictable, somewhat chaotic state
to a disciplined system of continuous
improvement. With this in mind, it goes
without saying that companies with more
mature practices find it easier to deliver
projects on time and under budget.
Most of the models offer the following
basic steps to improvement, which are
repeated in cycles:
• an early learning phase
• the integration of lessons learned with
processes
• the reengineering of business processes
• transition to a new phase of maturity
• repeat at the next level
Some model
following:
14
world monitor
examples
include
the
• the Organizational Project Management
Maturity Model (OPM3) – a Project
Management Institute standard detailing
knowledge, assessment and improvement
elements, and which is generally
recognized as the most comprehensive
example of project management.
• the Crawford Project Management
Maturity Model, which discusses five levels
of maturity and provides a framework for
the continuous improvement of project
management skills and results.
• ISO 9001:2008 Quality Management
Systems by the International Organization
for Standardization is a family of standards
that although quite detailed are generic
enough to be applied across almost all
business sectors and industries.
Most organizations in Kazakhstan are at
the lowest level of progression according
to the above models. This can be explained
by a typical five-level progression.
At Level 1 companies will have a project
management process but no structured
process or standards.
To achieve Level 2, businesses will have to
achieve Level 1 and have standard project
metrics in place.
At Level 3, organizations should have
standards and institutionalized processes
incorporating project metrics and evaluat-
ing performance of portfolio projects. At
this Level an organization should be adopt-
ing either an earned value management