While project management done properly is a value-add for a company, the challenge is in getting to “done properly.”
There is a concept that applies to many different aspects of a business: maturity. In the context of business processes, maturity refers to the level of thoroughness and structure that the process has.
Thoroughness, in turn, refers to the degree to which a process covers the applicable cases in the organization. It’s really a measure of how seriously a business takes a process.
Companies that are small and attempting to be nimble will often give short shrift to business processes, believing that they are unimportant and “we can get by with just winging it.”
Take the payroll process, for example. Maybe your company is small, there are only a few people on the payroll, and they all have few to no surprises – no special pay structures; everyone has similar terms of engagement; everything is just paperwork. But as soon as a special case comes in – someone files an FMLA claim, or runs out of PTO and then what do you do? – payroll instantly becomes more complex. As soon as that happens, a smart company will document that case and how the company responded – and voila! We have a business process. And with each addition to the payroll process, another degree of maturity is reached.
The same is true for project management. Project management maturity means that the project manager’s duties are clearly outlined, templates are used, there are standardized workflows for the project lifecycle, and there is a Project Management Office (PMO) watching over all of this. Often, the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) forms the basis for the artifacts and processes that a company uses to develop their project management maturity – but the PMBOK is enormous, and it’s not meant to be proscriptive. Each company needs to implement their project management processes in the way that works best for them, using PMBOK as a basis.
Process maturity is a good thing. But it is not easily nor cheaply obtained. And for smaller businesses, it’s daunting to think of the overhead involved in getting to that level.
Let’s be mature about this….
Want to learn more about our services, and how we can bring Project Management maturity to your company? Get in touch with us! Or get on our calendar!