As every maturity level defines some KPA to institutionalize or internalize in corporate culture to cultivate quality products, services, workforce talent, and financial results.
Defined maturity levels constitute Knowledge and Skills analysis, Workforce planning, Competency Development, Career Development, competency-based practices, and participatory culture.
P-CMM says after having repeatable KPA practice in place in the organization, to be Defined, to focus on its core competencies by analyzing its business process and work and tailor them to core competency. Then analyze skills and knowledge required to perform those business competencies. That way organization and individual unique competency are defined and aligned to each other. Further practices are worked upon at this level to have a unique competitive and strategic workforce and process advantage.
Let's move on to Managed level. At the managed level, the organization focuses on team-based practice and measures their performance to align at different levels of the organization. The focus is on the development of quantitative understanding of trends. The main KPAs are mentoring, team building, team-based practices, Organization competency management, Organizational performance alignment, and are interdependent with each other.
All KPAs are heuristic by themselves and if P-CMM processes and practices are carefully, systematically, and practically applied to the organization's soft and hard skills i.e. functional and technical skills, every entity becomes capable of moving to the next higher stage, which would otherwise take tenfold of time in terms of cutting costs, time, money, and increasing quality and intellect.
P-CMM goes on to compare product improvement evolution versus human; however, it is unfair and illogical to compare human talent with materialistic entities. Yet measurement of competencies can give extra added advantage in aligning and improving practice.
Even though every process area is interdependent (I think the term refers to a win-win situation instead of dependent) and every level is reached by stairing the KPAs, since you may find a sense of dependence in levels. Yet any organization can choose to implement a KPA jumping level up or down as required.
The Optimizing level KPAs are Personal Competency Development, Coaching, and Continuous Workforce Innovation. All process areas focus on the upward improvement path of personal competencies and workforce practices innovation.
P-CMM evolutionary maturity levels develop organization talent by using key practices in these process areas. Every key practice is a policy, procedure, or activity that implements the process or KPA.
In #1 and #2, you had an idea of maturity level and introduced key process areas and practices. In #3, I'll refer to some more PCMM infrastructure components before moving ahead to an example of the application of KPAs from an HR perspective.