Project Management Maturity Model

PMI has a project management maturity model called OPM3. Same approach. www.pmi.org

D. Williamson
President, PMI Southwest Virginia Chapter

This is nearly identical to the PMI approach to project management maturity. I have worked with two separate clients who were implementing the PMI approach and it was great on paper, but the implementation was extrememly lacking. Just as many other theories which I have seen come and go in the IT field, it works great on paper but fails to consider the fact that people act differenly based on their personalities and circumstances vary for each project (schedule, goals, technology, staff, etc.)

When these theories meet the real world they fail dramatically and usually result in increases to schedule and budgets while people try to fit a square peg (the real world) into a round hole (the thoery).

This list is a good start, but it doesn't provide enough detail about each of the steps.

For example, I work in an organization, that seems to fit level 3, but nobody ever follows the methodology close enough for it to be effective - just close enough to claim compliance.

For example, we "say" that we always will create a detailed requirements document. But, that document is usually just a starting point. Countless hours of meetings and question/answer sessions need to be endured to get a clear enough picture to start design work.

But, I think that documents like this are a great place to start (if you never start, you will never change)