Management Expert Unveils Full-cost Maturity Model That Helps Organizations Determine True Project Costs and Build Better Budgets.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Organization expert Dean Meyer unveiled the Full-cost Maturity Model (FMM) to executives gathered in Nashville this week for the annual IT Financial Management Association conference. FMM becomes the new standard to measure an organization's ability to know how much projects really cost, build better budgets, determine cost allocations, set chargeback rates, and support project portfolio management.

Meyer, researcher, author, and consultant, developed the FMM to address real-world problems like mistrust over an organization's costs and expectations that are out of line with available resources. The scale begins with traditional budgeting - Level 0 - where managers plan their costs by expense code (compensation, travel, training, etc.) but do not associate those costs with the projects or services they deliver.

"Traditional budgets don't give customers an understanding of what they're getting," said Meyer. "This is what causes unrealistic expectations - the old 'do more with less' dream." By following FMM, organizations can plan the full and accurate cost of their projects and services, create budgets they can defend, and develop a services catalog that clearly outlines what customers will get for their money.

FMM defines five levels of capability - ranging from simple cost transparency to fully burdened rates and equitable service chargebacks. The model also includes a step-by-step guide through the methods, processes, and tools required to make each level work. Fil Stabile, finance manager at Canada's Ministry of Government Services, attended the unveiling of FMM and said, "Finally, a common sense perspective and practical approach to costing and budgeting our services!"

FMM evolved from over ten years of research on how organizations plan, budget, decide allocations, and set chargeback rates, as well as the implementation of activity-based budgeting in more than two dozen organizations. Attendees at the announcement talked about their struggle to achieve true cost clarity. "Had we had FMM when we started this process three years ago, it would have saved us a lot of time and effort," said a finance executive from a Texas insurance company.

Most attendees said they plan on using FMM to assess their current costing practices. As one put it, "This is a good tool to help us assess where we are, identify the gaps between where we are and where we need to be, and plan exactly what we need to implement in the way of tools and methods."

The "Full-Cost Maturity Model, v 1.0" report is published by NDMA. Excerpts are available at www.fullcostmaturitymodel.com. NDMA is a research, publishing, and consulting firm focused on organizational design, including: culture, structure, work flows, and resource-governance processes such as activity-based budgeting.

Note to editors: Photographs of Dean Meyer, researcher and developer of the Full-cost Maturity Model, and cover graphics for the "Full-Cost Maturity Model, v 1.0" report are available at http://ndma.com/press Review copies: 203-431-0029.