Being a better... BA/CM/PM/SM... anything, really

A few years ago around the time of my annual review, I started a series of posts about being a better business analyst and that quickly turned into needing to understand what my strengths and weaknesses were as a business analyst.

I don't want to go into that much in this post, you can read about my thoughts in the business analyst posts on this blog.

Since then, after discovering that I was in fact a strong business analyst, my career has ... expanded, if you will.

I am currently employed as a Project Manager/Business Analyst, and am actively working on picking up Change Management skills as well. In addition, I've renewed my Service Management (ITIL) training, and am remembering again things I thought long forgotten about Product Management and the Application Lifecycle.

This year, I was introduced to the concept of maturity models, and while they are primarily applied in measuring an organization's maturity level, I feel that they can be effectively applied to a personal/professional development plan as well.

Most maturity models I've found have 4-5 levels, and the one I relate to most (Kerzner's) looks like this:

1. Common Language
2. Common Processes
3. Singular Methodology
4. Benchmarking
5. Continuous Improvement

For further reading, Google any of the following:

• Kerzner's Project Management Maturity Model
• Organizational Maturity Model
• Project Management Maturity Model