The Use of Assessments in Gauging Project Manager Maturity (Part 1)

Increasing project manager maturity in your organization by using assessments

In many organizations, there is no clear path to becoming a project manager. For as many companies as there are that have a path, there are those that do not. Team members are often assigned to be PM’s because of their availability or even because they are good at another discipline. And without the proper training and mentoring, many of their projects fail to meet their objectives.

As one possible solution, the proper use of assessments can pinpoint individual strengths as well as development needs at all levels within an organization, from directors to team members. This enables the design of highly targeted professional development programs which deliver organization-wide benefits. Targeting a wide range of competencies, the assessment is integral to:

• Retaining and developing talent;
• Advancing career development within the organization;
• Identifying areas for the implementation of best practices;
• Streamlining career development, education and accreditation;
• Achieving greater accountability for education decisions. This can also be the beginning of a discussion about raising the maturity and best practices of the organization.

In the next few posts I’ll discuss and demonstrate how these assessments work and what to expect as a result of doing them.