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(29-30 Dec 2004)Organizational Maturity and a Plethora of Maturity ModelsSuhail Iqbal, PhD Student, ISGI-ESC Lille, FranceAbstract

With the rising awareness amongst organizations to improve quality and efficiency, organizational maturity is now considered important. Software Engineering Institutes Capability Maturity Model for Software (SW-CMM) being the leader in providing a maturity model leading to a long list of Maturity Models currently being explored by various organizations. The objective of this paper is to define the concept of oranizational maturity and then to list and briefly compare selected maturity models. Finally viewpoints are outlined for the need of a unified maturity model and its adoptability in industry.Introduction

Maturity is defined as full development or perfected condition (Ludden,P., 2004). When somebody is not fully developed or in perfect condition, anything which can be achieved seems like maturity and we can gauge various levels of maturity but different methods. An organization, like humans, also have a lifespan, and it has to grow over period of time. It has to learn from its mistakes or seeks lessons from others mistakes or best prectices. The journey forward to perfection is maturity. But we usually forget that there must have been some limit to maturity. There must be an optimum level for an organization beyond which it cannot grow anymore and thus cannot mature further, or it will fall like an over-ripe fruit. Though this is discussed in later part of the paper but first we will review the various maturity models to measure the level of maturity of an organization, will compare a couple of them and then will proceed to analyse how can we come to a common understanding of organizational maturity and its measurement mechanism.

Whenever maturity of an organization is under discussion, different people view it from different points of view. Where people inclined towards quality will refer to Capability Maturity Model (CMM), people focused on process will be talking about Process Maturity Model (PMM), and yet project people look at it from Project Management Maturity Model (PMMM) and Organization Project Management Maturity Model (OPM3) perspective. All of these people are talking about a maturity model but none have formulated a universally acceptable definition of maturity as such. From strategic point of view, if we can combine all these view points and try to find how an organization really matures, we probably will be able to find the most appropriate maturity model. CMM

CMM was the pioneer of Maturity Models developed by SEI which was developed for software engineering. Later SEI came up with CMMI (Capability Maturity Model Integrated) and P-CMM (People Capability Maturity Model). CMM model is only concerned about the software processes and tries to develop mechanism to bring perfection to these processes. It has five levels namely repeatable, defined, managed and optimising, each level having its own ey process areas (KPAs) identifying issues that must be addresses to achieve a maturity level. (Ludden,P., 2004) CMM levels are broadly accepted in software industry and almost all maturity models are trying to copy the same levelling mechanism in one way or the other. It is clearly imminent by the wide use and success of CMM in software industry that it does serve to improve quality but the problem is that the base on which it was designed came from software industry and it hinges only on software processes. Just as CMM was becoming so popular and whole industry was eyeing software industry with anguish for having CMM, SEI released a genearlised version namely CMMI. Though the levels are the same but the processes have been slightly amended to remove the bias on software processes. It still serves to improve the quality which though is extremely useful but misses the point to having Organizational Maturity because quality or processes are not the only ingredients contributing towards an organizations maturity. Later P-CMM was introduced which was more oriented towards Human Resource capability improvement and thus was again addressing a specific view. Similarly a plenthora of maturity models was released mopst of which were software specific.Existing Maturity Models

Ludden,P (2004) opines that CMM has been reused for the development of many other maturity models in many fields including project management. According to him, to date there are estimated to be over 30 maturity models currently serving the market place (Cooke et al , 2001). Rosenstock et al (2000) listed 23 capability maturity model resources that covered quality and project management. Currently there are over 40 different Maturity Models in circulation and each addresses a specific aspect of the organization. The list has been taken from Copeland (2003) and have since been updated to show few more latest maturity models releated to project management. It follows:-

1. Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI)2. Capability Maturity Model for Software (SW-CMM)3. People Capability Maturity Model (P-CMM)4. Software Acquisition Capability Maturity Model (SA-CMM)5. Software Engineering Capability Maturity Model (SE-CMM)6. Integrated Product Development Capability Maturity Model (IPD-CMM)7. IT Service Capability Maturity Model (IT Service CMM)8. Organizational Project Management Maturity Model (OPM3)9. Services Maturity Model10. Self-Assessment Maturity Model (SAMM)11. Testing Maturity Model (TMM)12. Web Services Maturity Model13. Security Maturity Model (SMM)14. Operations Maturity Model15. e-Learning Maturity Model16. eGovernment Maturity Model17. Earned Value Management Maturity Model (EVM3)18. Outsourcing Management Maturity Model19. Change Proficiency Maturity Model20. Performance Engineering Maturity Model21. IT Architecture Maturity Model22. Information Process Maturity Model23. Project Management Maturity Model (PMMM)by Harold Kerzner

24. Project Management Maturity Model (PMMM)by Jim K. Crawford25. Programme Management Maturity Model26. Learning Management Maturity Model (LM3)27. Automated Software Testing Maturity Model28. Website Maturity Model29. PM2 Maturity Model30. Internet Maturity Model31. Usability Maturity Model32. Software Reliability Engineering Maturity Model33. System Security Engineering Capability Maturity Model34. Configuration Management Maturity Model35. Broccoli Maturity Model36. Project Risk Maturity Model (RMM)

37. Project Management Process Maturity Model (PM)2M

Project Management maturity modelsWith the strong realization of the budding discipline of Project Management, a new understanding was developed which was of establishing a linkage between strategy of an organizationto its projects. This was very romantic in the sense that all changes in an organization can actually be brought eithr through strategy or projects. CMMI was addressing only processes without specifying whether the processes are operational or project related. Generally it was assumed that it applies to all processes. But the interesting point here is that an operational processes tested for maturity, if needs improvement, must go through a change process which leads to a project. Quality has an equally important role in project management and even CMMI can very smoothly apply to it but there was a need for some futher deliberation. With opening of this new line of tinking, a number of project management maturity models were suggested, used and tested but it opened up another unending list of maturity models, this time related to project management. Project Management has its own level of development in an organization like projects, programs and portfolios which also are indicative of some level of maturity.Where Peterson (2000) sees project management maturity model as a logical framework that defines different levels of project management capability, Hillson (2001) being a Risk Management expert, views it as providing a structured route to excellence in project management. Kerzner (2001, p41) who is more into strategic planning and its relation with project management, states the model should assist companies in performing strategic planning for projects. Johnston (2003) also supports the Kerzners view of strategic planning by highlighting that firms are recognising the value of establishing measurements and indicators that provide a perspective on overall performance against strategic objectives. It is generaly agreed that Project management maturity models must provide an assessment framework that enables an organisation to compare its project delivery with best practice or against its competitors (Hillson, 2001). PMIs OPM3 (Organizational Project Management Maturity Model) is the latest addition to the list of maturity models and it is much more attractive as it starts with addressing the organization and not the projects. Moreover its maturity model is also very interesting as it is not in conventional layers but in a three-dimentional model. The three domensions are processes, domains and stages where processes include all the five process groups of project management initiating, planning, execution, controlling and closing. Domains are projects, programs and portfolios and Stages are standardise, measure, control and continuously improve. OPM3 is a major leap in project management maturity models but it makes the whole thing way too complex and Kerzners PMMM seems comparitively simpler to implement. Again the focus is on the domains which are all project related.Organizational Maturity

Here we have observed that though strategic planning was involved but due to the inclination of these well-noted and respected authors towards project management, they have dragged everything to the sphere of project management and organizational maturity is still not the main focus. It is agreed that whether the focus is on quality, people, projects or anything else, it is definitely going to contribute positively to overall maturity of the organization. It is also agreed that if all these maturity models are analysed and somehow tailored together, it will still be a positive contribution. But the question is, have organizational maturity even been considered in isolation? The maturity of an organization is a very broad issue and must be addressed top-down rather than evolving in bottom-up fashion. Bottom-up will definitely miss out some very important strategic ingredients which will let this never-ending evolution continue forever.

Coming back to the very important question of how much maturity is required. This is something we forget to understand when we start growing up, we do not estimate how much we want to grow and how much maturity is suitable for us. Will it be fine for a child to be as mature as an adult? Definitely a child does not need to be as mature as an adult and thus the level of maturity is less. Similarly if an organization has a limited strategic objectives and need not grow more than a specific limit, will any of these maturity models serve it well. It may improve its processes, its quality, its human resources, and even its project management skills, but for how long and how much? The size of organization plays an important role in its maturity and therefore a mdel which can adjust itself to the need of an organization must be developed.Moreover, we need to understand that all organizations and businesses have a definite span of life and like humans and projects they have to die one day. Continuous improvement is good motivator but an organization has to understand that improvement beyond its life span or beyond its strategic objectives is not desired. There is a need to explore this new area of research and find a wel-suited organizational maturity model which can answer all these open question.Conclusion

This article has highlighted and indicated a very important and missing research area which can change the shape of maturity models for the times to come. The need for bringing all the maturity models to the drawing board and consolidating their results to form a oraganizatinal maturity model may even not be enough and some creative and fresh thinking is required to identify all ingredients of Organizational Maturity. This also brings us to the realization that various organizations may have different maturity requirements and therefore the new organizational maturity model must address it appropriately. Currently a lot of useful research is going on Organizational Maturity but the irony is most of it is specific to a certain area and the spirit of organizational maturity is not being addressed as such.Reference:

Cooke-Davies, T, J. Schlichter and C. Bredillet, (2001, November). Beyond the PMBOK Guide, Proceedings of the Project Management Institute Annual Seminars & Symposium, 200, Nashville, TN,

Copeland, Lee., (2003) Maturity Maturity Model M3- Guidelines for improving the maturity process, Stickyminds, http://www.stickyminds.com/sitewide.asp?ObjectId=6653&Function=DETAILBROWSE&ObjectType=COL (Sep 9, 2003)

Hillson, D., (2001), November), Benchmarking Organisational Project Management Capability, Proceedings of the Project Management Institute Annual Seminars & Symposium, Nashville, Tenn., Nov. 1-10,2001 Johnston, R. (2003, Jan), Organisational Process Improvement- Project and Programme Management Maturity, Insight, 2003, p 7-9.

Kerzner, H., (2001), Strategic planning for project management using a project management maturity model, Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley

Ludden, P., Coates. A., McGarry, S. (2004) OPM3TM in a CMM World EDS Irelands (a CMMI3 orgaization) experience with OPM3TM, Proceedings of the PMI Global Congress 2004 Europe (Prague, Czech Republic)

(both Exhibits used in article belong to Ludden)

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