The People CMM® (People Capability Maturity Model®) is a framework developed by the Software Engineering Institute that helps organizations use a process driven approach to address workforce related issues. The framework supports organizations to move up the maturity ladder of their people related practices by prioritizing the improvements and institutionalization of their workforce practices.
Organizational excellence is function of the maturity of its operational processes, capability of its workforce and technology adoption. While operational process maturity is supported by frameworks and models like CMM® and ISO 9001, the People CMM® addresses the second part of the triangle and helps the organization build a workforce capable of meeting its strategic goals.
The People CMM® was developed to help organizations to attract, grow, motivate, deploy, and retain the talent needed to improve their operational capability
There are five maturity levels in the People CMM®, each progressively building on the previous maturity level. The maturity framework ensures that organizations introduce relevant people related practices at the right time (and not too early) and reap the maximum benefits from the implementation of such practices. Each maturity level is broken down into process areas and each process area is further broken down into practices.
In addition to process areas are grouped by threads spanning all the maturity levels. The four process threads are: (1) Developing Individual Capability (2) Building Workgroups & Culture (3) Motivating and Managing Performance, and (4) Shaping the Workforce
The People CMM® recognizes that practices introduced in an organization need to be institutionalized before they can have a lasting benefit. Around half the practices in People CMM® are devoted to the aspects of institutionalization of other practices.
Though the early adopters of People CMM® were IT services and product development organizations, the model is universal enough to provide similar benefits to other industries. Currently the model is being implemented in the ITeS/ BPO organizations and other service related industries like hospitality, insurance and banking.