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.
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?
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.
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.
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...
This tool helps champions of OPM3 assessments analyze stakeholders who may impact the success of OPM3 implementations.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Leading companies are renewing their organizations to position themselves for the upturn in the market--and those that use OPM3 have an advantage.
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.
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.
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 Gartner. In this session from the June 2005 PPM Summit, Jim Duggan, Research Vice President for Gartner, looks at the elements of governance, assessment and operational processes that successful implementations have exploited.
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.
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.
OPM3 is a framework for assessing and developing an organization’s capabilities in project, program or portfolio management. This presentation introduces the organizational PM standard.
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.
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.
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.
To outsource various types of functions (including software development/maintenance, data center and network operations, backup/recovery services, data storage management services, system administration services, etc.), you need to conduct a broad assessment of the capabilities of an outsourcing services provider. Use this outline as your guide.
This form is designed to assist the project manager with managing workforce performance beyond the traditional training plan, as substandard performance can be caused by many factors other than inadequate training.
For a complete assessment of your leadership style and skills, this multipart questionnaire--available for Premium Members only--is all you'll need. You can use it as a self-assessment or a peer assessment.
How robust and ready for launch is your project? Rate your own project on many success-indicator details in important areas using this extensive questionnaire. The results should help you discover your project's maturity level in terms of probabilities for success and where adjustments should be made.
Make sure your IT projects are bulletproof. This checklist doubles as both a quality review plan and a risk assessment document.
Use this project assessment plan to assess the health of a project and identify any symptoms that may indicate it is heading toward trouble.
The project is over, and you learned a lot--perhaps the hard way. Catalog the experience with this review and improve the chances that future projects will go well.
This assessment will help you decide if the application package you are evaluating does what it needs to do in your particular business environment and whether it's worth implementing.
Value Stream Assessment (VSA) is an approach used to assess the strengths and weaknesses of an enterprise's value stream(s) for the express purpose of creating a value stream-driven solution. This Microsoft Project plan will help you do just that.
This Microsoft Project Plan will walk you through the ins and outs of putting together a business question assessment to analyze the data you need for your data warehouse.
Use this project plan to keep your network security assessment project on track.
Improved deliverable! Is it worth it to implement a particular application package? This assessment will help you estimate the complexity of implementing that package in your business and technical environment.
This form provides a quick and dirty assessment rating for product and development quality.
Communication is a vital tool that any candidate for employment must demonstrate. Use these questions and suggestions to help evaluate candidates' written and oral communication skills.
The project risk identification and assessment form should be used to assess risks to and their impact on a project. Risks to be identified using this form include scope, timescales, deliverables, resources, milestones and expenditures.
This assessment lists major competencies and skills based on various consultancy-related categories.
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?
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.
This thorough and detailed assessment is a series of five checklists designed to guide you through the entire project lifecycle from start to finish: planning, analysis, design, construction and implementation.
The ulimate goal of any organization is to keep its stakeholders happy. That's how you thrive in business. This presentation explains how you can design your IS function to uphold the objectives of the organization in meeting this most important goal.
Disasters getting you down? Perk up with this Disaster Recovery project plan.
This recovery plan uses the output of the project assessment plan and implements the recovery.
This document is a checklist for assessment of whether a project plan meets an acceptable standard. This standard will vary from company to company, so feel free to tailor this form accordingly to meet your needs.
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.
Most project managers think of changes to a project to be related to change requests that modify the scope of deliverables. But changes to projects go far beyond mere scope changes, so it's important to have a change management process in place that can address any manner of project change. While the majority of organizations have fairly mature change request processes in place, most lack similar processes to handle event-driven changes.
Are you ready for EVM? Our writer conducted a study on earned value management readiness based on 40 critical factors found in successful EVM implementations, and here we present the Top 10.
Business reengineering is about change, but it is also about balance--balancing customer needs and operational performance to achieve business goals and objectives. Let this plan show you how to achieve balance on your BRE project.
What impact will your project have on your organization? This assessment will help you and your stakeholders understand various types of impacts and better prepare to deal with them.
Developing effective project management skills can be a challenge in the best of times. The range of topics and disciplines on the project management field is broad, and it can be difficult to know where to best focus our energies and efforts. In the fields of information technology and telecommunications (IT&T), the project management challenge grows ever greater. Effective project management means that our skills sets need to integrate proficiencies from the disciplines of project management, general management and the underlying technical disciplines our projects are rooted in. In the IT&T space, this means a broad range of skills, functions and capabilities. This assessment helps you gauge where your skills are currently in order to help guide your future career development efforts.
