What is the Maturity Level of your Team?

We were asked if two teams we were working with had achieved Maturity Level 3.

Both teams had been using the FTTM System for about 4 months and where doing a very good job. They had kept close to the target milestones. The team was attending the weekly refreshes and they we all participating.

These are teams who had not created, nor really used schedules to manage their projects prior to the FTTM experience. Most of the project management was done through “PowerPoint or Excel Schedules” done once at the start of their projects are rarely reviewed once the project started.

This is how we responded. We would say, both projects are at ML2.3. To make it to ML3, they need to be pulling-in before the schedule slips - to be looking ahead and not just looking back.

At this point, they are still recovering slips each week (pull-back after slipping and follow-through on pull-back actions). ML3 is very hard to achieve, most teams don’t. Only the high performers get there.

On a 0-10 rating scale, it would look like this:

  • ML0 = 0

  • ML1 = 2

  • ML2 = 5

  • ML3 = 10

Further, we would be satisfied if a majority of your teams reached ML2. Where you want your “ML3 performers” is on your strategic, big dollar projects.