Purpose

P3M3 (Portfolio, Program, Project Management Maturity Model), from the UK Office of Government Commerce (OGC) is a leading maturity assessment model designed to enable organisations to understand their current level of maturity and highlight areas that would give them the most value and performance improvement in the short and long terms.

The Australian Federal Government has mandated that government agencies implement P3M3 as a common methodology for assessing their organisational capability to commission, manage and realise benefits from ICT-enabled investments, and other project, program and portfolio activity.

This initiative is part of the Government’s response to the recommendations of the Review of the Australian Government’s Use of ICT and aims to strengthen governance of the lifecycle of ICT investment including business domain activities such as requirements definition and benefits realisation. the Department of Finance and Deregulation website is a good source of material about agency capability improvement.

Composition

In order to complete a maturity assessment it is recommended that organisations use an APM Group Accredited Consultancy Organisation (ACO) to undertake a review using the APM Group assessment tool. This flexible approach is tailored to the needs of the organisation in collaboration with the consultancy. It focuses on specific areas of the model for that particular organisation.

The assessment is based on a number of interviews and review of project, program or portfolio artefacts, with Registered Consultants making an assessment of the organisations process maturity level (awareness, repeatable, defined, managed, optimised) against key areas (management control, benefits management, financial management, stakeholder engagement, risk management, organisational governance, resource management).

A report identifying the organisations current maturity level and potential capability development pathways is provided at the completion of the assessment.

Derivation

P3M3 originated as an enhancement to OGC’s Project Management Maturity Model, which in turn was based on the process maturity framework that evolved into the Capability Maturity Model (CMM)®, developed by the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) in the United States.

HineSight Development is an Accredited Consultancy Organisation (ACO), and is able to provide the full suite of P3M3 services (portfolio, programme and project).

A key component of any capability development plan is to understand the starting point – knowing where we are now is critical in mapping a journey to where we want to be. In the area of Project and Program Management conducting a maturity assessment provides a clear indication of the current state, and provides insight into areas requiring additional development.

Format & Presentation

Assessments are tailored to the needs of the client. The APM Group Assessment Tool is used for all assessments, and the base assessment report is consistent. Results of an assessment are presented in a report and presentation.