What is the P3M3 Maturity Model?
P3M3 (Portfolio, Programme and Project Management Maturity Model) is a framework, owned by AXELOS (now part of PeopleCert), used to measure how capable an organisation is at delivering portfolios, programmes and projects in a repeatable, predictable way. Assessments can only be delivered by an accredited Axelos Consulting Partner, such as Wellingtone, and result in a maturity score from 1 to 5 across seven perspectives.
The higher the score, the more likely an organisation is to deliver consistent, predictable results.
Where P3M3 Comes From
The P3M3 approach is based on capability maturity work originally developed for the US Department of Defense, later refined by Carnegie Mellon University, and since applied to measure maturity in software development, business processes, people capability, and, as covered here, portfolio, programme and project (P3) delivery.
P3M3 was originally commissioned from industry experts by Axelos, previously the UK Government’s Cabinet Office joint venture, also known for stewarding PRINCE2, MSP, MoP, MoR and ITIL. Axelos was acquired by PeopleCert in 2021, which now manages and licenses the P3M3 portfolio directly.
How Does a P3M3 Assessment Work?
An assessment is conducted by a licensed Axelos Consulting Partner and looks across three lenses:
- Theory: how well “best practice” has been translated into your operational reality
- Practice: evidence of how much of that theory is actually used
- Perception: the view of the people and customers who experience the process day to day
The result is an overall maturity score from 1 to 5, but the real value sits in the individual scores and insights for each perspective and thread underneath it.
Learn more about how the P3M3 assessment works from a P3M3 Assessor.
The Three P3M3 Models (Pillars)
Every P3M3 assessment is scored against one of three independent models, each assessing a different scope of delivery:
- Project Management (PjM3): the ability to manage individual, tactical projects effectively, ensuring consistent and repeatable execution.
- Programme Management (PgM3): how well multiple, interconnected projects are coordinated to deliver broader strategic outcomes and benefits.
- Portfolio Management (PfM3): how well all projects and programmes are aligned to overarching business strategy and resourced efficiently.
P3M3 Pillars PeopleCert – Copyright of PeopleCert
The Seven P3M3 Perspectives
Within whichever model is being assessed, P3M3 scores capability across seven perspectives:
| Perspective | What it assesses |
|---|---|
| Organisational Governance | How clearly roles, decision rights and oversight are defined and applied |
| Management Control | How projects/programmes are planned, tracked and controlled |
| Benefits Management | How benefits are identified, tracked and realised |
| Risk Management | How risk is identified, owned and mitigated |
| Stakeholder Management | How stakeholders are engaged and managed |
| Finance Management | How budgets, costs and financial control are handled |
| Resource Management | How people, skills and capacity are planned and deployed |
The 13 Cross-Cutting Threads and How Deep an Assessment Goes
Running across all seven perspectives are 13 common threads: more granular attributes that assessors examine in detail, including standards and processes, tools and techniques, information and knowledge management, planning, roles and responsibilities, competency and capability development, and assurance.
Each perspective and thread is scored against specific behavioural and process attributes that an organisation must demonstrate to reach the next maturity level. The diagram below shows how an assessment drills down from model, to perspectives, to threads, to individual attributes:
How a P3M3 assessment drills down from model to perspectives, threads and attributes
Understanding P3M3 Capability
Before looking at advantages, it’s worth understanding what “capability” means in this context: it’s all the components that combine to allow something to be delivered.
A simple way to view this is the POTI model: Processes, Organisation, Tools, and Information.
- Processes: defined methods for project delivery and governance
- Organisation: suitably qualified, experienced people working in defined roles
- Tools: the right IT and non-IT tools for planning, collaboration and communication
- Information: knowledge and lessons from previous projects, plus current and predictive performance data
The Five P3M3 Maturity Levels
| Level | Name | What it looks like |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Initial (Awareness of process) | Projects may be recognised as distinct from BAU, but often run informally with no tracking system |
| 2 | Repeatable | Individual projects follow their own processes to a minimum standard, but with limited consistency between projects |
| 3 | Defined | Centrally controlled, organisation-wide processes exist, with flexibility for individual projects to adapt them |
| 4 | Managed | The organisation captures and retains performance data, and uses it to predict future performance |
| 5 | Optimised | Continuous improvement is embedded, using data and lessons to refine practice organisation-wide |
Very few organisations need, or benefit from, reaching Level 5. Most organisations get the best return on investment by targeting Level 3 or 4, appropriate to their size, sector and ambition.
How P3M3 Can Benefit Your Organisation
An assessment by an independent, accredited third party provides an objective, impartial view of an organisation’s specific strengths and weaknesses across the seven perspectives and up to 13 threads.
Sponsors of an assessment often receive, for the first time, independent confirmation of things they suspected but could never quite prove, plus a clear set of priorities to act on, facilitated by the assessor. The resulting report is commonly used to:
- Secure funding for capability improvement (e.g. at board level)
- Demonstrate to external stakeholders or clients that your P3 capability has been independently verified
- Build a practical, prioritised improvement roadmap
More tangibly, PMI’s Pulse of the Profession research found that organisations with high project management maturity are 21% more likely to meet the goals and intent of their strategic initiatives.
This supports the case that investing in a maturity assessment improves:
- Project performance: cost, schedule, resourcing and quality
- Intangible benefits: decision-making, communication, culture and organisational alignment
- Customer satisfaction: through greater realisation of business benefits
Who Can Deliver a P3M3 Assessment?
P3M3 assessments can only be delivered by an organisation licensed as an Axelos Consulting Partner (ACP), using assessors who have completed Axelos/PeopleCert’s formal assessor training and testing. This isn’t something you can run as a self-assessment. A self-assessment version existed previously but has since been withdrawn.
Wellingtone is an Axelos/PeopleCert-accredited Consulting Partner, delivering P3M3 assessments and audits across project, programme and portfolio management. Our assessors combine the formal P3M3 methodology with nearly a decade of our own benchmarking data, drawn from over 2,000 organisations, so you get an industry-recognised score alongside practical, comparative insight, not just a number.
As standard, when an organisation engages Wellingtone for a P3M3 assessment, we overlay our own 15 value-enabler PMO maturity assessment at no extra cost, addressing a common criticism of P3M3, which is that it measures PMO maturity well but says less about the PMO’s actual impact on delivery.
P3M3 vs a Wellingtone Maturity Assessment: What’s the Difference?
Organisations often ask whether to go for the formal Axelos P3M3 audit or Wellingtone’s own maturity assessment. Both follow the same core approach (a framework desk review, a review of live projects/programmes, and structured stakeholder interviews) but they differ in depth, cost and outcome:
| P3M3 Audit | Wellingtone Maturity Assessment | |
|---|---|---|
| Ownership | Axelos/PeopleCert IP | Wellingtone IP |
| Typical duration | From around 9 days | As little as 3 days |
| Outcome | Industry-recognised certificate and score | Detailed score, benchmarking and roadmap (no external certificate) |
| Best for | Publicly demonstrating maturity to clients/stakeholders | Internally focused benchmarking and improvement roadmaps |
| Benchmarking | Against Axelos’s global dataset | Against Wellingtone’s dataset of 2,000+ organisations, by industry |
