When I first heard that the SEI had a lesser-known counterpart to its Capability Maturity Model (CMM) called People CMM (P-CMM), I had to DuckDuckGo if it was a joke.

It isn’t, except in the same sense that CMM-I is a kind of cruel joke.

P-CMM uses the same 5 levels as the SEI CMM to “systematically transform chaotic workforce practices into strategic capability development” across 22 process area. Without any sense of irony, the process professes to “address critical people issues in your organization”, then immediately dropping the word “people” in favor of the terms “workforce” and “resource.”

(ed: actual non snarky non-llm version included below)

P-CMM By The Numbers #

The 600 page technical report includes 10 Principles and a kind of flow chart involving 5 levels across 22 dimensions, then several hundred pages of supporting verbiage and case studies.

10 Principles of P-CMM #

1. In mature organizations, workforce capability is directly related to business performance.
2. Workforce capability is a competitive issue and a source of strategic advantage.
3. Workforce capability must be defined in relation to the organization’s strategic business objectives.
4. Knowledge-intense work shifts the focus from job elements to workforce competencies.
5. Capability can be measured and improved at multiple levels of the organization, including individuals, workgroups, workforce competencies, and the organization.
6. An organization should invest in improving the capability of those workforce competencies that are critical to its core competency as a business.
7. Operational management is responsible for the capability of the workforce.
8. The improvement of workforce capability can be pursued as a process composed from proven practices and procedures.
9. The organization is responsible for providing improvement opportunities, and individuals are responsible for taking advantage of them.
10. Because technologies and organizational forms evolve rapidly, organizations must continually evolve their workforce practices and develop new workforce competencies.

I’m not sure how the word “people” got left out of the list entirely. Must have been a Categorical Workforce Misalignment from the Organization’s Strategic Logitudinal North Star, or something.

5 Levels, 22 Dimensions #

The 5 maturity levels of P-CMM:

1. Initial - Workforce practices are ad hoc and inconsistent. Success depends on individual efforts.
2. Managed - Basic workforce practices are established and managed at the project level.
3. Defined - Standard workforce processes are defined and implemented across the organization.
4. Predictable - Workforce practices are measured and controlled using quantitative techniques.
5. Optimizing - Continuous improvement of workforce practices through innovation and optimization.

Red Flags #

It’s a leadership red flag when a company decides to spend millions of dollars on this kind of transformation. Ironically, it indicates a focus on the exact opposite of people, and is typical of a kind of cargo-cult CYA jargon-fetish that plagues the upper echelons of corporations. If an organization announces this kind of initiative, it means leadership has lost focus on its own human earth people and the products and services they create. Companies that have the kind of cash on hand to implement this have achieved some degree of success, and have lost the bead on how they got successful in the first place.

Don’t believe me? Here are the companies P-CMM touts as success stories:

Intel, IBM, Boeing, BAE SYSTEMS, Accenture, Tata Consultancy Services, Lockheed Martin.

These companies are certainly still around and still heavily capitalized. But when I look at that list, I see companies that have ceded their values and are now some combination of negligent, criminal, or hopelessly out of touch, spending the rest of their grandparents’ reputational capital trying to Increase Shareholder Value while the doors fly off the plane and the competition eats their collective lunch.