BMO was the first Canadian bank to achieve ISO 9001certification for its project management process. Using ISO 9001 standards, project managers build teams more quickly, because everyone in the organization is familiar with the PM process. Project managers focus on making commitments, managing expectations and delivering value, and employees know what is expected of them at every stage of the project.

"We are zealots in the accreditation and the training of project managers, and that has brought incalculable value to the bank and its businesses," said Darlington. "Our project manager program is now so successful that we don't only train technology project managers, we have people within the businesses that worked on projects with us taking these courses."

In addition to ISO 9001 certification, BMO is well down the path of adopting the Software Engineering Institute's Capability maturity Model for software development, based on the simple yet powerful principle: the probability of a successful outcome from a process depends on the degree of process maturity.

"As we move up the maturity curve," said Darlington, "we expect to gain 39 percent increase in productivity."

Benchmark, measure and reward

There's an old saying that "what gets measured gets done". Measurement helps motivate people to achieve the company's goals. Linking compensation with achieving targets helps align an individual's professional goals with the company's goals.