Project management maturity diagnostics across 11 organisations and the development programme built on the results

What was delivered, in short

INSTAR ran project management maturity diagnostics in 11 of a donor's partner organisations using its own methodology: five maturity levels, 11 weighted project management domains. First a quick questionnaire pass, then a detailed check against the organisations' documents. Each organisation received an individual report with strengths, growth areas and recommendations; the donor received a portfolio picture with external benchmarks. On that data a development programme was designed: a tailored online course, project management training, a practice-exchange meeting between organisations, mentoring sessions to implement recommendations, and PMP certification preparation for some participants. A repeat measurement on the same domains is planned a few months later.

About the client

The client is one of Ukraine's largest donor foundations, focused on strengthening civil society and communities. Within an institutional development programme it works with a portfolio of partner organisations of different profiles and sizes: human rights, humanitarian, educational, media, research, from small teams to networks with regional branches. What they share: almost all activity runs through grant projects from European and Swiss donors, and project management maturity is what decides whether they are trusted with the next round of funding.

Business challenge

The donor wanted to raise partners' capacity systematically and see the result in numbers. That required an honest starting point: where each organisation is now, what exactly its weak spots are, how one differs from another, and which of it should become the content of training. Questionnaire self-assessment alone distorts the picture: organisations often overrate themselves or, the opposite, do not realise their practices already count. What was needed was a methodology that combines a questionnaire with a document check, yields a comparable score and is understandable to the organisations themselves.

Specific needs

• One maturity methodology with levels and domains, fit for the civil sector and comparable with other organisations and with the commercial sector.
• Two-stage diagnostics: a quick questionnaire pass, then a detailed check of documents that confirm or refute the answers.
• An individual report per organisation and a consolidated one for the donor, with recommendations from which a training programme can be assembled directly.
• Confidentiality: a report version for organisations with the other participants anonymised.
• A development programme built on the results: online course, training, practice exchange, mentoring, certification for those ready.
• The ability to repeat the measurement and show movement.

What was delivered

Step 1. Tailoring the methodology. INSTAR's maturity model: five levels, from awareness of practices to continuous optimisation, and 11 domains: governance model and integration, stakeholders, communications, scope, schedule, finance, quality, team, risk, procurement, monitoring and evaluation of results. For each level, the markers are described: how practices are applied, whether processes are documented, how disciplined their use is, what project success depends on, how leadership sees status.

Step 2. Quick pass. A 28-question multiple-choice questionnaire with comment fields, completed by all 11 organisations.

Step 3. Detailed diagnostics. Over 100 documents from the organisations: policies, regulations, plans, budgets, risk registers, reports, checklists. Every questionnaire answer was checked against documents; the domain score combined the answer and its evidence. Plus a review of open sources about each organisation. One organisation did not provide documents and was left out of the final scoring.

Step 4. Reports. An individual report per organisation: domain profile, level, strengths, growth areas, recommendations. A consolidated report for the donor: the portfolio picture by domain, comparison with external reference points, recommendations for the development programme. A separate version for organisations with the other participants anonymised.

Step 5. A development programme built on the data. A practice-exchange meeting between organisations. A tailored online course and project management training whose content was assembled from the portfolio's real gaps. Mentoring sessions for each organisation right after the assessment, to work through its report and start implementing. PMP certification preparation for several participants.

Step 6. The next measurement. Repeat diagnostics on the same domains a few months later, to show movement for each organisation and for the portfolio.

INSTAR team: project lead and methodologist, two diagnostic consultants who then became mentors, an administrator.

Business impact

• A starting point in numbers. Every organisation knows its maturity level on the five-level scale and its profile across 11 domains; the portfolio as a whole started mostly at the second level, ranging from the first to the third. The donor sees how the portfolio compares with external reference points.
• Each organisation received its own growth areas and recommendations. Its own profile and what to do first. The details of each report stay between the organisation, the donor and INSTAR.
• Training assembled from data. The content of the course, training and mentoring rests on the portfolio's real gaps. In mentoring sessions organisations received detailed advice on how to close their risk areas; typical examples of requests: a project management policy, role allocation, a risk register, a detailed schedule, working with a sub-grantee.
• Funding readiness. For organisations that live on grants, documented and measured project management maturity directly affects donor trust and the odds of the next round of funds. Several participants went further, towards PMP certification.
• A measurement that can be repeated. Methodology and reports are ready for the second pass, and that is what will show how much each organisation and the portfolio as a whole have grown.

Let's talk

Want to measure project management maturity in your organisation or across a portfolio of partners and build a development programme on it? Tell us about the context and we will get back within two working days.