What we did:

Identified representative projects to audit;
Determined project complexity;
Investigated current processes and capabilities;
Recommended areas to improve;
Developed an improvement plan.

The outcomes:

New awareness  of project processes and controls;
A clear path for improvng the organization's project management capacities to the recommended level;
Clarity of link between developing project management capability and strategic direction of organization.

CHIM worked together with CUPE Ltd, an APMG-approved Consulting Organization, to perform a P3M3® audit of an organization which is responsible for projects delivering off-shore infrastructure for the energy transmission sector.

CHIM helped CUPE Ltd to perform this audit by preparing the commercial offer and estimates in German, confirming scope, providing local logistical support, carrying out interviews in German, analysing interview results and co-working on developing the improvement plan and providing subsequent support to the end-client.

Background

A P3M3® audit is a structured process which looks at the maturity of an organization's existing project management culture and the complexity of the projects that it is undertaking in order to assess the adequacy of existing processes and capabilities and identify areas which should be improved.  The audit delivers a justification for investment in improving project management processes and a benchmark which can be used to measure progress.

The client’s projects are building complex and innovative products in a very hostile environment and have budgets of several hundred million Euros.  Their role is to initiate the project and manage the delivery through sub-contractors using fixed-price turnkey contracts.  The need to ensure that particular contractual conditions are met in order to avoid triggering large financial penalties drive a requirement for highly effective project governance.

The client has asked us to maintain their anonymity until their project management improvement project is complete.

The Process

• We worked together with PMO representatives to identify representative projects to be audited.

• Participants in the representative projects were interviewed to collect detailed information about project processes and complexity.  (Interviewees told us  that they were impressed with the thoroughness of the interviews and enjoyed the experience as it made them think about how they themselves were contributing to their projects.)

• We analysed the interview output using the APMG Maturity Index™, a set of tools and a global database which has been jointly developed by APMG-International and the Helmsman Institute.

• We used the APMG Maturity Index™ output and our own experience to identify both the areas where the client already has appropriate processes and capabilities and the areas where improvement is recommended to improve the outcome of their projects.

• We used the recommendations as a basis for developing a plan to bring the organization to an overall level of maturity which is appropriate for the challenges that it is facing.

The client is currently implementing our plan and we look forward to supporting them through to a successful completion of their improvement project in 2014.

About P3M3® Audits
Organizations can carry out their own P3M3® audits using simplified self-assessment questionnaires which can be found on the APMG web-site.  However, a self-assessment tends to be overly optimistic and so we recommend that an assessment is carried out by a suitably qualified external consultant.

Only APMG-approved Accredited Consulting Organizations have access to the full P3M3® questionnaires and the APMG Maturity Index™ tool-set.  CUPE Ltd. was  the first organization to be recognized by the APMG as an Accredited Consulting Organization, attaining that status in 2001.