MCA Project Management Excellence Program · Team Recognition
Gold recognition: what your team submits
Gold recognizes teams where the system belongs to the whole team, not the Project Manager, and where the outputs drive real decisions. There is only one new document at Gold. The rest is a conversation and the package you already maintain.
Gold is not a bigger binder. It is evidence that the tools changed what the team did, and that more than one person can speak to them.
| BronzeFoundation. The core PPMM outputs exist and are in use. | SilverDiscipline. The outputs are kept current and planning runs in sprints. | You are hereGoldCulture. The team owns the system and it drives decisions. |
What you submit, per project
Four items. Your Silver package as it stands, one or two short decision cases, a conversation with the team, and a note from MCA leadership.
- Your Silver package, currentEverything from Silver, as you use it today
- Decision casesWhere an output changed what the team did
- A conversation with the teamTwo or three team members, one call, no preparation
- MCA EndorsementLeadership confirms the team owns the system
Ready for Gold? Seven questions
- ☐ Has it been at least six months since your Silver recognition?
- ☐ Is your Silver package still current, including the quarterly plan?
- ☐ Can you name a decision in the last year that a PPMM output triggered?
- ☐ Did that decision change something real: a date, a budget, a procurement, a mitigation?
- ☐ Could two or three team members other than the PM explain the outputs in their own words?
- ☐ Do team members update the outputs themselves, rather than sending changes to the PM?
- ☐ Would your team present how it works to another MCA?
Five or more yes answers means you are close to Gold: look at the items you could not tick. Fewer than three, talk to IPM about where ownership sits today.
Where to start
Start with the decision cases. Look back over the last year for a moment when a risk matrix, an S-Curve, or the schedule told you something and the team acted on it.
Your Silver package, current
PPMM Steps 1 to 9
What it is: The six Bronze documents, baselines and variance, the Quarterly Implementation Plan, the Change Control Matrix, and the RACI Matrix. The Silver page lists what each one needs.
Submit: The same formats as at Silver.
What reviewers check
- ☐ Everything Silver asks for is still met, with current dates.
- ☐ The quarterly plan covers the current quarter, and earlier quarters show a continuous run.
- ☐ The change log shows the documents were updated as changes were approved.
- ☐ Lessons learned or after-action notes from completed sprints, if your team keeps them, are welcome here.
Decision cases
One or two short cases
What it is: One or two short accounts of a PPMM output driving a real decision: the risk matrix that triggered a mitigation, the S-Curve that surfaced a spending problem, the schedule that forced a procurement to move.
Submit: One to two pages each, in Word or PDF. Plain prose.
What reviewers check
- ☐ At least one case, and no more than two, from the last twelve months.
- ☐ Names the output and the date it showed the problem or opportunity.
- ☐ States the decision taken, who took it, and when.
- ☐ States what happened afterward, including if it did not work out as hoped.
- ☐ The case is traceable in the documents themselves: the risk, the change request, the revised dates.
- ☐ Someone other than the Project Manager is part of the story.
A conversation with the team
Not a document
What it is: IPM speaks with two or three team members other than the Project Manager about the outputs they use. This is how we see whether the system belongs to the team.
Submit: Names, positions, and the best way to reach them. Nothing to prepare.
What reviewers check
- ☐ Two or three team members other than the Project Manager take part.
- ☐ Each can explain, in their own words, the outputs they work with and what they are for.
- ☐ Each can say where the current versions live and how they get to them.
- ☐ Each can give an example of using an output in their own work in the last quarter.
- ☐ The Project Manager does not need to be in the room.
MCA Endorsement
Signed by MCA leadership
What it is: A one-page note from MCA leadership confirming that the outputs drive decisions on this project and that more than one person owns them.
Submit: Signed PDF on MCA letterhead, using the statement below.
What reviewers check
- ☐ Uses the authorship statement below without changes to its wording.
- ☐ Names the team members who maintain and use the outputs, with position and what each one owns.
- ☐ Signed and dated by the MCA CEO or Deputy CEO, or the equivalent position.
Authorship statement to use
MCA Endorsement: Gold Tier Submission
I confirm that the project management outputs for [Project or Activity name], [Country], are owned and maintained by the project team named below, and that the team uses them to make decisions about the work. The decisions described in this submission were taken on the basis of those outputs, and more than one member of the team can speak to how they are used.
| Team member | Position | What they maintain |
|---|---|---|
Name: ____________________ Position: CEO / Deputy CEO / ____________
Signature: ____________________ Date: ____________
When you’re ready to submit
What the review feels like
IPM looks at each item against the checks above, and the conversation is a conversation, not an exam. If something falls short, we say what would make the case clearer and you can come back to it. A team that does not reach Gold keeps its Silver recognition.
How to send it
- Upload the package and the decision cases to the Box folder your team used for Bronze and Silver, then email IPM at tkachm@mcc.gov to say they are there, copying the MCC Resident or Deputy Resident Country Director.
- Use the subject line: Gold submission, Country, Project/Activity.
- Name the two or three team members available for the conversation in that email.
- IPM schedules one call, usually under an hour, with those team members.
- IPM comes back with the result and any notes.
Housekeeping
- Submit one package per project, or per activity where activities are substantially different efforts.
- Everything from Silver still applies: same formats, dated documents, and the Workplan from scheduling software.
- Decision cases are one to two pages each. Prose is fine. No template.
- Nothing needs to be written specially for the conversation.
- Name each file Country_Project_Document_vX_YYYY-MM-DD.
After Gold
What comes with Gold: recognition by MCA and MCC senior leadership, a PPMM Champion role for the team, an invitation to mentor another MCA or present at a learning event, and a voice in how the methodology develops.
An initiative of MCC’s Integrated Program Management group.
Questions, or want IPM to sit with your team on any of this: Marc Tkach, tkachm@mcc.gov · Taylor Steelman, steelmants@mcc.gov