PMO Maturity Dimension #4 - Tools

The Tools dimension is simple at the start and ramps in time and complexity as you seek to improve your maturity.  Most PMOs start with the same basic tooling their overall organization uses.   You might be a Microsoft shop, use Google’s suite, or something else.  Anything that provides a word processor and spreadsheet can be used at the start of your PMO journey. 

As you look to advance your organization and maturity you will start to look at project and process management specific tooling.  The tools you will want will vary based on your need.  It may be a PMIS like Smartsheet, Project, Monday, or Notion.  It might be an Agile management tool like Jira, Leankit, CA Agile, or something else entirely. 

Once you have your tools selected maturity is all about improving the efficiency and effectiveness of your PMO by using them to their fullest extent and evaluating how they meet your needs. 

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A note on tool selection – The world of PM tools is pretty vast.  It can be easy to see something new that catches your interest or seems to solve problems you don’t even have yet.  New tooling is often more expensive from a time perspective than a cost standpoint.  Jira licenses can be had for as little as $5/mo/user but the time for your teams to learn new systems and configure them for your workflow is much more expensive. 

We recommend taking the time to create a detailed use case.  We have evaluated over 60 different project management tools and while there are common functions available in all of them, the differences can be critical for your team’s efficiency.  Document your team’s needs and wants, ranked by priority.  Use this to evaluate several tools and see what works for you. 

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Here is the overview of the Maturity Model Tools dimension:

Tools Maturity Dimension

Level 1: Ad Hoc Project Management Organization 

• Ad hoc tools or no dedicated project management tools in place. 

• Heavy reliance on generic tools like spreadsheets or email. 

• Few or no templates utilized by the team. 

Level 1, as always, is our starting point.  At this level you will be utilizing your baseline organizational toolsets.  An example of this would be using MS Excel to organize your projects, creating plans and logs and using them to communicate with your project teams.  At this level you are starting to think about creating templates within your toolset (this is coupled with the Process dimension). 

Moving from Level 1 to Level 2: Again, this goes hand in hand with Process Level 2.  You will still be using your baseline organization tools but will have templates for all the basic project management artifacts to drive consistency. 

Level 2: Basic Project Management Organization 

• Exploration of dedicated project management tools or software. 

• Initial documentation templates might be introduced. 

At Level 2 a couple things will start to happen.  You will be creating templates for use in your baseline tools.  This can be as simple as creating your RAID logs consistently in MS Excel or Google Sheets, Communication Plans in Word or Docs, and your presentations in PowerPoint or Slides. 

At this point you will want to start evaluating project management specific tools for your PMO.  Now that you have an idea of the templates and processes that are key to your PMO you can start building a use case for evaluating potential PMO tools.  This is also an opportunity to lay the groundwork for the budget and resources you might need to implement these tools. 

The transition from Level 2 to Level 3 is the big step.  At this point you will be selecting and implementing your PMO tooling.  We recommend a strong crawl-walk-run philosophy when it comes to new tools.  The time investment for your team to learn and administrate new software is sizable, take it on in manageable chunks.  Embrace the Minimum Viable Product approach so you can quickly start using and learning your new system.  Prioritize what you need to be able to do Day 1 and what can wait. 

Level 3: Standardized Project Management Organization 

• Dedicated project management software in place and widely used. 

• Regular use of templates and standardized documentation. 

Level 3!  You have now implemented your shiny new project management system and are actively using it.  You have implemented your PMO templates (or created new templates) and your users are learning the ins and outs of the system.  I’ll reiterate what I said in the paragraph above, be methodical; build or configure what you need to continue to provide the value you did before your new tool and look for opportunities to become more efficient but do not try to implement everything at once. 

Moving from Level 3 to Level 4: This move is another evolutionary step.  Your team is actively using your PMO tools and learning about them.  Tactically they understand how to keep project work moving forward effectively with their tools.  Level 4 is the move to strategic functionality.  Once you have good, consistent execution data you can start to explore the reporting and analytics functions that come with many of these software packages. 

Level 4: Enterprise Project Management Organization 

• Advanced project management tools with analytics capabilities. 

• Integration of tools with other enterprise software. 

Level 4 is about using the data in your system strategically.  That can be building out reports and dashboards in your current system, looking at ways to expand your communication reach, or integrating with other systems to push and pull data to improve your efficiency. 

A basic example of this would be integration between your Agile management systems and your project management systems (if they are not one in the same).  You could have your Agile management system roll development progress up to your project management system for better progress tracking and manual update time reductions.  From a communications standpoint you could build dashboards that summarize project information for external stakeholders or leadership. 

Moving from Level 4 to Level 5: Level 5, across several dimensions, is about creating continuous feedback and evaluation loops.  Focused on effective tooling this means continuously evaluating if the toolset you are using is still the right one for the job. 

Level 5: Project Management Organization Center of Excellence 

• Advanced analytics and AI-driven insights for project performance. 

• Tools are regularly updated and optimized for organizational needs. 

At Level 5 you are looking at your tools from the lens of continuous improvement.  The first question in your mind should be “Does this tool still meet our needs and wants?”  The second is “Can we get more out of the tooling we have?” 

PMO software providers are continuing to improve and expand on their offerings.  Whether it’s advanced analytical capabilities, PMIS platform Integrations, or AI you will be continuously evaluating new functions to see if they can impact your team’s ability to deliver quality results. 

Closing 

We don’t recommend switch tooling often.  Changing vendors and platforms is a time-consuming process that you want to undertake with careful consideration.  On the flip side, if your current toolset is lacking, don’t be afraid to start an evaluation and comparison process. 

Tool maturity is interesting, budget is the primary consideration at the lower levels, time is the biggest problem as you move up the maturity ladder.  Much like the People dimension, you can have a highly effective organization at Level 3 or even at Level 2 depending on your needs process set. 

Privately, we have some tools we love using, but it differs from team member to team member even in our organization.  You will probably find yourself in the same situation.  Publicly we think the best tool is the one that meets your use case and is actively being used by your team.