Raising Your P3M3 Maturity to Drive Your Recovery

The P3M3 approach benefits the organisation by providing a common, integrated vision of improvement which can lead to decreased costs and improvements through on-time delivery, productivity and customer satisfaction.

P3M3® is a management maturity model that assesses the relationships between projects, programmes and portfolios and how it delivers them.

Within P3M3® there are three sub-models (portfolio, programme and project), and within each sub-model there are seven perspectives.

Planning Your P3M3 Assessment

It is important for organisations to be self-aware of their maturity level, and what is optimal for them, to maximise ROI from its investments. The independent benchmarking tools provides diagnostics that help organisations understand the constraining factors that inhibit better performance.

The Four Step Approach of P3M3

It does this by looking at:

• Whether appropriate processes and procedures exist and are suitable
• The effectiveness of organisational structures, competencies and strategy development policies in place
• What tools are in place and how effectively they are used
• How information is communicated and used to manage performance

NOTE: P3M3® is a registered trademark of AXELOS quality assured through Associate Consulting Partners (ACPs)

An Example Form a P3M3® Assessment

As with the SEI’s Capability Maturity Model, P3M3 is described by a 5-level maturity framework as below.

The P3M3 maturity model sub-models (Portfolio Management (PfM3), Programme Management (PgM3), Project Management (PjM3)) are further broken down into seven perspectives to assess the five maturity levels and the overall maturity of an organisation in P3M:

1. Organisational governance
2. Management control
3. Benefits management
4. Risk management
5. Stakeholder management
6. Finance management
7. Resource management

Identify Systemic Weakness with P3M3® Threads

Threads are a way of grouping the attributes.

Threads are the horizontal rows that exist within each perspective, and are relevant to all seven perspectives. For example, ‘process’ is one of the threads that is common to all the perspectives.

Threads can be used to identify systemic weaknesses that affect all the perspectives.

There are a minimum of 9 threads 9 (up to 13) depending on scope of assessment.

Using Threads to Assess Each Perspective and Sub-Model

Threads can be used to identify systemic weaknesses that are common weaknesses across all sub-models (Project, Programme and Portfolio) that can then be used for further diagnostic.

This analysis can then be used to highlight areas for improvement and build a roadmap. Past benefits have included: (1) better accounting and financial management; (2) sales and profit maximisation; (3) improved equipment, machinery and subcontractor management; and (4) on-time supply and stock control.

What Can be Achieved?

Using either our online self-assessment tools, or our AXELOS certified assessors, companies can categories the best practices of each dimension to assess their current level of capability within each area. This allows an assessment of your project’s current tools, resources and processes. This allows organizations to determine their strengths and weaknesses in delivering change.

At DADA Enterprises a P3M3 assessment is important to us, not just as an auditing tool, but to drive performance. At DADA we use it to ensure that the implemented system has the right (a) People; (b) Tools; and (c) Processes. The analysis and systems solutions are then captured in a Blueprint that ensures that the right organisation roles, systems and support networks are in place.

How DADA Can Help You for P3M3?

As an AXELOS P3M3 Consulting Partner we can provide you guaranteed delivery via our “Consultancy as a Subscription” service to provide on-demand resourcing & flexible monthly plans.

Kathy Castle

A dedicated Career Coach, Agile Trainer and certified Senior Portfolio and Project Management Professional and writer holding a bachelor’s degree in Structural Engineering and over 20 years of professional experience in Professional Development / Career Coaching, Portfolio/Program/Project Management, Construction Management, and Business Development. She is the Content Manager of ProjectCubicle.