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Program and Portfolio Management Maturity Model by Gartner

Credit: ITScore Overview for Program and Portfolio Management by Gartner

Gartner's model has these levels:

  • Level 1: Reactive
  • Level 2: Emerging Discipline
  • Level 3: Initial Integration
  • Level 4: Effective Integration
  • Level 5: Effective Innovation

Level 1: Reactive

  • All internal processes are centered on the management of critical projects.

  • Projects have budgetary estimates.

  • No formal management tools.

  • The organization is more reactive than proactive when dealing with projects. One of the hallmarks of this level is a mad scramble to get things done, often with too few resources and very little time.

  • The PPM role is nonexistent or just emerging, usually because someone on staff brought the knowledge into the organization. Personal relationships form the foundations of informal "adhocracies." Consequently, processes and projects tend to revolve around specific individuals who are generally viewed as heroes or super achievers.

  • Internal processes are centered on managing critical projects, so priority projects get staffing support, but all else is on the first-available schedule.

  • Larger projects, when they are absolutely necessary, are contracted out to vendors. Projects may have budgetary estimates, but quite often, the project work is simply funded out of the IT or other departmental budget.

  • Technology tools for projects are generally limited to spreadsheets and, occasionally, a project-scheduling tool used by an individual project manager (PM).

  • Generally, it takes some external event, such as rapid growth, a change in market conditions or a merger/acquisition, to prod an organization to lumber — like a bear awakening from hibernation — from its reactive cave into a Level 2 state where standards for projects and programs begin to emerge.

Level 2: Emerging Discipline

  • Project processes are standardized.

  • PMO(s) are established.

  • Projects and programs are prioritized.

  • Projects are aligned with strategy.

  • At Level 2 — at least in IT — most organizations begin labeling almost any unit of work as a project.

  • Depending on how long an organization stayed at Level 1, and depending on its culture, Level 2 can be a massive swing from a "just get it done" environment to a process-driven organization.

  • The classic Level 2 approach to process is to "focus on repeatable process" (borrowing a term from Capability Maturity Model Integration [CMMI]), which has been under fire with the progressive mainstreaming of agile approaches to software development.

  • As part of a natural migration (rather than a terminal destination), Level 2 organizations require only the bare minimum of process to ensure that project oversight is effective and that the right decisions can be made about a project (see Figure 1).

  • Most organizations at this level have invested or will soon invest in a basic PPM tool.

  • The concept of disciplined teams working on a project is developed, and project collaboration and team workspaces are supported.

  • Nevertheless, "stovepiped" systems and inconsistent data still bedevil business processes.

  • Tools with reliable data for value/financial management are generally still rudimentary, with little or no capacity to provide a detailed look into multiple projects or programs, or to handle chargeback or allocation systems.

  • Relationships at this level tend to break down, and the term "the business" as opposed to "IT" begins to emerge.

Level 3: Initial Integration

  • Specialized PPM leader roles are formalized.

  • Cross-functional groups are easily formed, and collaboration is the norm.

  • Programs increasingly are managed in house.

  • Career paths are defined.

  • There is a need for everything to begin to work in harmony.

  • At this level, organizations begin to find a balance among the competing demands of the five dimensions of our model — people, practices, value, technology and relationships. Nothing is perfect, but it's good enough to keep everyone somewhat happy.

  • Organizations practice reasonable resource management, which means they are adequately staffed with talented and capable project managers. It also means they match their project demand to their resource capacity before starting a project.

  • Organizations understand the difference between a project and a program.

  • Organizations staff and manage a program when the scale, risk and complexity of the work justify it.

  • A good portfolio process ensures that the right projects and programs are approved.

  • A project's benefits must be articulated at the beginning with a business case, rather than being retrofitted at the conclusion of the project.

  • The most useful competency for a PPM function at Level 3 is holistic thinking — focusing on the whole, not the parts. This entails being able to understand how a change in one area will affect others, how changes should be made and in what order to achieve maximum results.

  • Joint decision making about projects and programs by the organization as a whole.

  • The entire management structure of the organization can understand what investments are being made, what the outcomes and benefits are, and what the probability of success is.

  • This need for transparent decision making fuels a need for tools to provide visibility and support analysis.

  • There is also a need for a reliable delivery mechanism and for some level of financial accountability.

  • Level 3 tends to lack sophistication, but there is a conscious focus on investing in the individual to improve performance so additional compliance activities aren't required, laying the groundwork for Level 4.

Level 4: Effective Integration

  • Centers of competency improve workload management.

  • The portfolio is modeled and approporiately optimized, factoring in risk.

  • Multiple methods are exist and are used by all PMs.

  • Benefit realization is being tracked.

  • The organization begins to focus on being project-capable.

  • There evolves an expectation that projects and programs contribute business value.

  • There is a realization that the fastest, least expensive way to accomplish anything new and different is through the mechanism of setting up a project or program.

  • Work that was started on the portfolio at Level 3 comes up a notch, and it's now possible to begin to talk about real strategy execution.

  • A network of PPM leaders exists companywide.

  • Centers of competency help improve workload management.

  • Capacity planning is in place and operating.

  • Practices — such as lean in the process area — help shift the focus from the internal organizational workings to a more customer-centric perspective.

  • The portfolio is modeled and appropriately optimized, factoring in risk.

  • Value and benefit realization are being tracked.

  • Because program management skills are being developed internally, most program managers are now being chosen from internal candidates, rather than from among outside consultants.

Level 5: Effective Innovation

  • Chage operations provided a constant stream of mini-projects.

  • Change management and communications are core capabilities of the EPMO.

  • Rapid strategy execution is the focus of enterprise programs.

  • There is an expectation that IT has both strategic and tactical value and can potentially be used to redefine markets and industries.

  • Innovation is no longer an afterthought, but rather a continuous process everywhere in the organization.

  • The operational side of the organization begins to embrace fully the concept of "change operations".

  • The development side of the organization turns to more exploratory and classically innovative initiatives similar to what our research is showing for IT with the evolution of bimodal IT. 7

  • Portfolios exist for all project work throughout the enterprise.

  • An EPMO oversees strategy execution and value delivery, aond ther PMOs exist as necessary throughout the organization.

  • Technology supports a robust knowledge management system, and resource management is enabled for all project resources.

  • Team compositions change and adapt to each initiative, and work is structured and executed in a way that maximizes the odds of getting things done.