Capability Maturity & Alignment System (CMAS)
CMAS is a SaaS (Service as a Service) application for IT, project management professionals. It's purpose is to ensure that the holistic capabilities required for the achievement of any objective or business outcome are fully aligned to improve the probability that the objective or outcome is achieved.
Designed primarily for IT and project management professionals, CMAS has a generic 4 level maturity framework and a capability maturity model that can be fully tailored to any organization. CMAS also follows the green-amber-red color coding prevalent in IT and project management disciplines.
CMAS enables capability maturity profiles to be produced for any outcome and in any format. The example below is in the EFQM (European Framework for Quality Management) format.
Full details of all the organization's defined capabilities are contained in the CMAS database and displayed online. Any inconsistent (amber) or missing (rose) capability to the left of the target level of maturity or alignment (green flag) is incorporated into the gap analysis and used to guide planning, prioritize investment and scope development.
Capability matruity models don't have to be expansive. A model can be developed for any project, process or any business outcome.
At the start of a project or change initiative, project managers first create a profile of all the capability strands that will impact the achievement of the objective or business outcome for the project and then populate the profile with the stored capability status from the CMAS database. This highlights existing capability gaps. When all planned and proposed changes are added, it will show what other activities are likely to impact the same objective or outcome. It will also identify where more than one change is being planned for the same outcome.
The project manager can then use the outcome profile's gap analysis to refine the core scope of the project as well as engaging owners of capabilities that are outside the score scope to ensure their capabilities are delivered within the required timetable. If required HR can re-set operational targets of goals to ensure these peripheral capabilities will be in place in time for the delivery of the core project.
All planned (blue) and proposed (purple) changes to capabilities are included in the CMAS database, enabling a forecast profile to be produced for any project, goal or outcome showing the likely impact of the planned and proposed investments.
For example, the following profile is for an IT investment programe. The current status shows that the iT environment and applications are not supporting the company direction and goals.
The company had determined that it wanted to align the business at the 2nd level (2nd Base on this model). However when the proposed IT plans (purple blocks) were added to the profile, it showed that IT would be over-investing in the billing system. As a result the billing system was de-scoped to align with the rest of the IT capabilities.
The gap analysis was used to scope another program to deploy the 2nd Base capabilities in System Selection & Project Management, including setting up a formal Progame Management Office.
Stored capability data can be mapped to any outcome or aspect of the business: goals, initiatives, projects, departments, divisions and even processes.
The CMAS database holds details of the capability, stakeholders, owner as well as all planned changes. In future releases, expanded capability data will include metrics, costs and performance as well as links to project management systems to dynamically update the capability status and trigger re-assessments where required.
CMAS is fully scalable. An assessment could involve just one 'strand' (group of capabilities) across an entire organization. It is also entirely feasible to start with a small assessment and then expand both the capability model and the number of respondents as the organization learns how to apply this incisive analysis of its business.
CMAS can be used to:
- Assess the alignment of the capabilities of an entire organization to identify its strengths and weaknesses
- Review all proposed change initiatives and investments to determine the likelihood of the desired outcome being achieved
- Support PMO (Program Management Office) operations and help reduce multiple and conflicting changes to capabilities
- Prioritize and scope capital investment to increase ROI
- Improve the alignment of operational capabilities with IT and other change initiatives to ensure the desired outcome is achieved, reducing internal tensions and conflicts
- Track and report the improvement in customer management capabilities over time as projects are delivered
- And much, much more…
Please contact us if you would like to try CMAS in your organization, or if you just want more information.