OPM3

What is maturity? Can an organization be considered mature if it does the wrong things well? What if it does the right things in the wrong way? The OPM3 business standard helps organizations become more mature. But misperceptions still exist about what “maturity” means. This issue is not explained in the standard itself and has never been written about by anyone, so what better place to do so than here and now?

Many people still do not understand the Standard and the differences between its implementation tools. What are the differences between the OPM3 Standard, OPM3 Online and OPM3 ProductSuite? The answers await inside...

From the Saudi Arabian MOI NIC
The history and culture of the Kingdom of Saudia Arabia posed unique challenges to the Ministry of Interior’s PMO. Like Harris Corporation, they understood the four reasons why many organizations fail to transform their Project Management cultures, and avoided these pitfalls working with OPM Experts LLC. But as a counterpoint to Harris, the NIC’s case shows how the culture can be the driver of process deployment.

Recently we surveyed members of two OPM3 groups and asked them what they thought the generic reasons for using OPM3 may be, and how OPM3 should be used. We also asked them how various stakeholders within an organization may view these questions. Their answers provide interesting food for thought.

A forthcoming book from publisher McGraw-Hill will explore the facets of OPM3, and you can help contribute to its development in the context of peer-production or user-developed content. What questions do you want the book to answer? What topics should be explored? Would you like to be featured in the book, and if so, what is your own success story using OPM3? Click here to find out how you can help.

From Harris Corporation
Harris Corporation offers compelling insights into the impacts that process can have on culture and vice versa. This organization understood the four reasons why many organizations fail to transform their Project Management cultures, and avoided these pitfalls with their PMO working with OPM Experts LLC.

We would like to hear from you! What do you think the objectives for using OPM3 are? Click here to find out how you can help.

An assessment using PMI’s Organizational Project Management Maturity Model is intended to help organizations develop capabilities in project, program or portfolio management. Find out more about OPM3 assessments--and how you get certified--in this article.

gantthead ushers in a new era with its OPM3 department, and this welcome from subject matter expert John Schlichter provides an overview of PMI's organizational project management standard--and gives us a look at things to come.

Leading companies are renewing their organizations to position themselves for the upturn in the market--and those that use OPM3 have an advantage.

In today’s economy, businesses must continuously improve processes and the PMO needs to continue to add value by maturing with the business. How do you know that your PMO and project management processes are effective? Who sets the standards and how do you compare your PMO to those standards? As our look at the Central Arizona Project case study continues, we see how OPM3 stepped in to help.

How mature is your organization, and how mature does it need to be? There are many ways to define maturity. Here is an overview of the major maturity models and how they might relate to the projects, programs and portfolios that you're working with.

We have seen a growth in the emphasis on acquiring, managing, sharing and exploiting information--and supporting individual and collective decision-making. In particular, more mature organizations have the ability to recognize situational change and to adopt the correct management approach required to meet that change: agility. Two standards provide ways of assessing and developing these capabilities--and both are explored here.

From OPM Experts, LLC
Ask yourself what culture means, and you may find it difficult to state a clear and succinct definition, but it is likely that you can recall an organization in which you have worked that had a healthy culture, and just as likely that you may recall an organization that you would characterize as having an unhealthy culture. Why is that? Although culture is a many-faceted thing that may seem difficult to boil down into a sound bite, it is something that impacts everyone. The culture determines how people define themselves and their relationships with others, and greatly influences a person’s sense of self.

The building of capable project management processes and the transformation of a company’s project management culture go hand in hand. Project management offices and the standard known as OPM3 should play a lead role in accomplishing both.

As we enter 2011, it's time for a refresher--it's the perfect time to explore the cross section of views and perspectives about PMOs. It's the perfect time to see what others are thinking regarding the state of PMOs, and this article will focus on starting a PMO, avoiding PMO failure, trends and the future of the PMO.

At Central Arizona Project, the IT department had 89 projects with significant resource management challenges. Although it began with all of these projects behind schedule, over budget and with low quality, it corrected these problems with OPM3. This story is about CAP’s Information Technology department and its journey of project management improvement through PMI's OPM3 assessment model.

One approach to improve project management maturity is through a project management community of practice, an informal group of PM practitioners who share advice, tips, techniques, lessons learned and promote relevant topics in the project and program management domain.

To help manage the ambitious project to simultaneously update its four standards, the Project Management Institute created a new position: the content integration analyst. Beth Ouellette was chosen to fill the role, and here she shares a first-hand account of the effort to “harmonize” the standards.

With an emphasis on harmony and cohesion, the Project Management Institute recently updated its four global standards — PMBOK, the Organizational Maturity Model, portfolio management and program management. Here’s a closer look at what’s new.

Does OPM3 help to ensure that an organization’s brain is connected with its heart, hands and feet? Or is the project management maturity model simply feeding companies another flavor-of-the-month fad, long on theory and process but oblivious to the ambiguities and uncertainties of real project work?

Many organizations still struggle with keeping project portfolios organized and making hard decisions between competing projects. Here's some advice in using good portfolio management and organizational governance to cancel a project.

September 14 forum offered in conjunction with online survey to measure organizational support for project, program and portfolio management.

The demand for qualified project managers, specialized knowledge and global standards shows no signs of abating, according to top education officials at the Project Management Institute, which is preparing to release findings from a major research study on the value of implementing project management.

Are you familiar with the new Joint Framework IT Governance Standard, the first attempt to develop a universal standard that will work in Europe and the United States? This work in progress will undergo many changes and recalibrations over the coming years, but it's not too soon to familiarize yourself with its components.

One of the most established standards organizations (and their pronouncements) is often missing from the IT governance conversation: the International Organization for Standardization. Did you know that the ISO has been very active in the governance and compliance space? Here is an update on the standards that you might find useful.

Though rarely voiced explicitly, the key question a project manager must answer when undertaking a new project is: “Do we have the capability to do this?”

RMC’s publishing arm expects Jerry Manas’ second book to be available by the end of the year.

PMI has announced the impending launch of a new certification--a program management credential. The question needs to be asked…do we need another certification? And is this the one we need?

Vilified or blamed for inefficiencies by the majority of its constituents, project governance rarely gets the appreciation that it deserves. Why do so many people have such contempt for it, and how do those responsible for governance get out of this state? The answer might be revealed by understanding one of the fundamental laws of economics.

How can mature project business management practices and processes add value to the enterprise’s operations? While the answer may vary, one example lies in how project management roles and methods can improve the chances of successful development of products or services by an organization.

Is the PMP really the dividing line of quality for a PM, or is the world a little more complex than that?

It is not uncommon to find that in the workplace, education can make a greater impact than experience. And the trend is becoming more competitive as employers are looking increasingly for employees who attain an even higher level of education.

The time has come to deal with your Corporate Governance and Sarbanes-Oxley Compliance. How ready are you? Here are eight steps to make sure you get your company where it needs to be.

ITIL, OPM3, XP, APM, PMBOK, PRINCE2 — the list goes on and on. How does anyone make sense of all the management mantras? The reality is that most do not. True leaders understand the importance of getting every member of the team to take ownership of their actions and the overall strategy. This requires more than an alphabet soup of process, it requires an owned strategy.

The chair of PMI’s fastest growing special interest group, the IT/Telecom SIG, shares some thoughts on important trends in technology and project management, including mobility, maturity models, project management offices and agile methods.

When you look at the benefits of a PMO--lower costs, more efficiency, higher success rates--you may start looking for reasons why your company hasn't implemented one. Here's a secret: There are no good reasons, only myths--and here's how you can get around them.

With the pressure of Sarbanes-Oxley compliance weighing on them, CIOs are looking for the IT governance standards that will bring them up to par. Of course, compliance isn't as simple as following a single standard. Here is a rundown of standards appropriate to each funcitonal area of your IT department.

To reduce project “malpractice” and the harm it causes, organizations must improve their overall project management maturity. Here is a framework for aligning strategy, oversight and execution to build more mature, effective project and portfolio management efforts.

In the global economy, it should be no surprise that the U.K.-based PRINCE2 methodology is making inroads beyond Europe, while the PMBOK Guide continues to expand its reach internationally. A growing number of organizations, it would seem, are adopting project management best practices based on more than just where they originated. Here’s an overview.

The function point has been the unofficial king of project sizing methods for some time. Years after its introduction, though, this measurement bellwether is seeing new challenges to its reputation as the most relevant and effective method for project sizing.

Like most projects, the value of ITIL needs to be quantified and communicated clearly to the rest of your organization. The combination of information on benchmarked cost saves--paired with baselined metric data or value drivers--will present them with the information needed to tell a convincing story and sell the business case.

With 200,000 members in 150 countries, the Project Management Institute is the world’s largest and most visible advocate for the profession. ProjectsAtWork interviewed Greg Balestrero to get the latest on PMI’s globetrotting efforts, as well as two new standards in portfolio and program management, and the rest of the agenda heading into 2006.

How can project management maturity affect EPM implementations in a government agency? You'd be surprised. By procuring and implementing EPM, government agencies are essentially shifting from a people-centered organization to a project-centered organization. The challenge for project managers responsible for these implementations is that the agency probably does not realize this. How should project managers address these cultural issues and help prepare an agency for a successful EPM implementation?

The difference between strategic project success and failure for organizations is often based on their IT governance framework. And project portfolio management tools are contributing more and more to the governance area through core components. Here’s a roundup of solutions to consider.

An interview with Santa Claus, CEO of the North Pole, provides some insight into how one of the most complex projects in the world is managed.

The software-as-a-service (SaaS) model comes to collaborative project portfolio management.

All may not embrace the Project Management Institute's widespread influence on the profession it serves, but it is indisputable: 50,000 new members in the past two years alone, 1.5 million copies of the PMBOK in circulation, a presence in 150 countries. So what's next for PMI? CEO Greg Balestrero shares his hopes and dreams.