In accordance with the CMM philosophy, an organisation progresses through the stages of competence (or maturity) in its project management system, and once a given level of competence has been achieved the organisation then progresses to the next level.

The approach we use is a hybrid although based quite closely on one of the standard models. We start with a system audit, which is broadly similar to a project audit but also takes into account corporate involvement in projects - this audit concentrates on the "nuts and bolts" of how projects are managed (see inset).  There are a set of standard questionnaires covering  the nine knowledge areas in the PMI Project Management Body of Knowledge handbook - these may be used "as is" or tailored to the organisation. 

Having conducted the initial audit the organisation can be matched to a maturity category and an improvement programme agreed and put in place.  For some organisations the objectvie is to progress upwards through the maturity levels, whilst for others it's more appropriate to reach a given level and ensure that this is maintained across the board.

Following the pattern of one of the standard maturity models, the levels are broadly defined as follows:

At Levels 1 and 2 the main focus is on putting the mechanics of project management in place, although evidence of a project culture throughout the organisation is required. At Level 3 the project managment methodology must be fully integrated with other management methodologies, such as TQM and concurrent engineering.

Level 4 organisations must engage in formal benchmarking against best practices elsewhere. In this phase the organisation determines the improvement areas and devises its own questionnaire. The benchmarking partners may be of any type (any industry / location / size), the only criterion being that they show excellence in the area being benchmarked. There are strong advantages in using an online system for the benchmark surveys, in terms of speed, cost and response rates, and this may be developed rapidly with an expert system.

Level 5 organisations have reached true excellence in project management and are engaged in continuous improvement. Very few organisations achieve this status.

Any project based organisation should regard Level 3 as being the minimum acceptable standard if they wish to compete. We work exclusively with organisations at Levels 1 - 3.

System improvement requires a long term commitment, and on average it will take at least a year to progress from one stage to the next.