The method
Fit-to-Maturity
A practice sized to the organization that will run it.
Every organization already has a way of deciding, planning and delivering. It may be unwritten, and it may depend on a few people, but it is there, and it is the only thing a new practice can be built on. So we start by measuring it, not by replacing it.
Systems exist to help the organization, not the other way around. A governance manual nobody opens, a portfolio process that takes longer than the projects it tracks, a change program that runs out of patience before the change does: each was designed for an organization that did not exist. We design for the one that does, at the maturity it has today, with room for the one it is becoming.
Nothing we put in place is fixed. Roles, meetings and documents are kept as light as they can be while still working, and every one of them carries a review date. At the review it is kept, changed or retired. That is what working in an agile way means to us: the practice adjusts to the organization, so the organization never has to abandon it.
Principles
Six principles, and the reason for each
- 01
Measure before you design.
Every engagement begins with where the organization actually is, not where a framework assumes it is. A design for the wrong starting point is a design for someone else.
- 02
Borrow, don't adopt.
PMI, COBIT, ISO and the rest are libraries, not laws. We take what the organization's maturity can carry and name what we left on the shelf, so it can be fetched later.
- 03
The lightest structure that works.
A process people skip is worse than no process: it teaches them that the rules are optional. Roles, meetings and documents are sized to the smallest set people will keep.
- 04
People decide; systems support.
A governance system that overrides judgment is soon worked around. Ours makes the decision visible and leaves it with the people accountable for it.
- 05
Everything has a review date.
At the review, each practice is kept, changed or retired. Nothing is permanent by default, so nothing has to be endured.
- 06
It must work without us.
Handover is designed from the first week: named owners, rituals and documents your people run. An engagement that ends in dependence has failed.
Stages
Five stages
Each stage ends with something the organization keeps: what we do in it, samples of what it produces, and what we need from you.
Short cycles, each checked by your decision-maker, until it matches what you expect.
- 01
Map
Find out where you are.
- 02
Fit
Design the practice to the level. The loop begins.
DesignPut it to workYou check itAdjust
Your decision-makerOn your side, with the final say. Accepts or redirects each step.Short cycles, each checked by your decision-maker, until it matches what you expect.
- 03
Run
Run it on real work. The loop turns until it holds.
- 04
Hold
Hand it over.
- 05
Revisit
Keep, change or retire.
- 01
Map
- What we do
- Interviews, document review, and the maturity assessment in depth, dimension by dimension.
- Sample deliverables
- A maturity profile by dimension
- A one-page finding
- A roadmap with two or three options
- What you provide
- Access, and 6 to 10 interviews.
- 02
Fit
- What we do
- Decision rights, portfolio rules, a PMO charter or a change approach, each sized to the maturity found in Map.
- Sample deliverables
- The operating design, on as few pages as it needs
- Roles and cadence
- Templates
- What you provide
- A design group of 3 to 5 people who will own the practice.
- 03
Run
- What we do
- The practice runs on real projects and real decisions, in short cycles, and is adjusted at the end of each cycle.
- Sample deliverables
- A working practice
- Trained owners
- The first two cycles of real data
- What you provide
- The owners' time.
- 04
Hold
- What we do
- Coaching for the owners, a first-quarter review, and the handover kit.
- Sample deliverables
- A handover pack
- A capability plan
- What you provide
- Reviews attended.
- 05
Revisit
- What we do
- What is used, what is skipped, and what the next level needs.
- Sample deliverables
- A short review note with keep, change and retire decisions
- What you provide
- An honest hour.
Maturity
Four levels, five dimensions
The method and the assessment share one scale. Each dimension is scored on its own, because an organization is rarely at one level everywhere.
The levels
- Improvised
- Outcomes depend on individuals. Things get done because certain people make them happen.
- Agreed
- There is a shared way, written and known, applied unevenly.
- Practiced
- Applied consistently, with data, reviewed on a cadence.
- Adaptive
- The practice changes itself on evidence; the organization adjusts it without us.
Level 4 is not everyone's goal. The right level is the one the organization needs for its size and its ambitions, and for many SMEs that is level 2 or 3. Reaching a level is not a trophy; a practice that holds is.
The dimensions
Decisions and governance
Who decides what, how a decision is recorded, and how it is followed.
Portfolio and PMO
How work is chosen, funded, sequenced and stopped.
Delivery and projects
How a project is planned, run, reported and closed.
People and change
How a change is introduced, supported and made to last.
Digital and data
How technology and data serve the four dimensions above.
We score the Digital and data dimension and lead the change around it; the technology is delivered with our partners, Keel first among them.
What we don't do
Four things you will not get from us
- No two-hundred-page manuals. If the design does not fit on a few pages, it does not fit the organization.
- No tool before the practice exists. Software bought first becomes the practice, and it is rarely the right one.
- No “done” at delivery. A practice is done when your people have run it without us for a quarter.
- No maturity level as a trophy. The level describes where you are, so that the next step is possible.