We started to use the CMMI process improvement model as a guide to help us to establish a system that helps our projects to be delivered consistently, on-time and within budget
My question is, how an organization working to implement the CMMI model can befit from OPM3
Thanks for your help
Sally - PMP - CFPS Saving Changes...
Michael WoodProject Manager / Business Analyst / Business Process Improvement Guru| Independent ContractorGig Harbor, Wa, United States
I don't see any reason for not being able to blend these two concepts together. Saving Changes...
Mark Price PerryBusiness Driven PMO Evangelist| BOT InternationalOrlando, Fl, United States
Dear Sally, CMMI and OPM3 are two wonderful fruits that come from different trees. CMMI comes from the Carnegie Mellon Software Engineering Institure a federally funded research and development center sponsored by Department of Defense. SEI seeks to help organizations, like your software firm, improve in your software engineering capabilities to develop quality software, that can be delivered on schedule, within budget, defect free every time. The SEI aims to advance the practice of software engineering so the DoD can get the maximum value possible from its software investments. The SEI is a preeminent software engineering research and development center worldwide. Being CMM Level 5 certified means something for your company and to your customers, especailly the DoD. OPM3 comes from the Project Management Institute (PMI) funded primarily by membership services and certifications and it seeks to ensure that organizations around the world will value, adopt, and use project management and attribute their success to it. PMI is the premier PM organization with over 100,000 professionals in virtually every country. Within CMMI, you can use PMI's OPM3 model. Think of it as PM Best Practices within and in support of your software engineering processes. So, in a few hundred words, I have basically said what Mr. Wood has said in 15 words..! Having said that, while the IT departments of many companies look to PMI for leadership and are seeking to adopt OPM3 (and/or CMMI), being a software company it makes very good business sense for your firm to embrace CMMI and to stay within its guidelines for appraisals and certifications. Lastly, think of OPM3 as a vendor product. You can purchase it from PMI, use it to meet many of the CMMI PM knowledge and process related requirements, and be spared countless hours of developing PM process, assessment, and knowledge content yourself. Good luck with your CMMI journey. -- Mark Perry, VP of Customer Care, BOT International
Saving Changes...
Mark Price PerryBusiness Driven PMO Evangelist| BOT InternationalOrlando, Fl, United States
Dear Sally, I forgot to mention... check out ProcessMax by Pragma Systems. ProcessMax is a web-based software project management solution that includes all the processes, procedures, guidelines, criteria, templates, and forms needed to be compliant with the Software Engineering Institute's Capability Maturity Model® for software (SW-CMM®) or the Capability Maturity Model Integration ® (CMMI®). You can find them on the web. Richard Hayden is very knowledgeable and helpful. Best regards. -- Mark Perry, VP of Customer Care, BOT International Saving Changes...
John SchlichterFounder| OPM Experts LLC http://opmexperts.comAtlanta, Ga, United States
Sally,
Our firm recently led an OPM3 assessment for an organization that had achieved SEI CMM Level 4. We found many ways in which each of these distinct standards is synergistic and supportive of the other, although each is designed for unqiue purposes and has its own strengths. Incidentally, PMI asked me to lead the development of OPM3 (which I did for 4 years, before launching OPM Experts, http://www.opmexperts.com), and now I offer OPM3 training workshops and assessment services. You may email me at [email protected] if you need help.
Regards,
John Schlichter
404-252-4299 Saving Changes...
John SchlichterFounder| OPM Experts LLC http://opmexperts.comAtlanta, Ga, United States
The Board of the Marketing and Sales SIG (MSSIG) is pleased to announce that we will host a live webinar featuring Mr. John Schlicter . He will be speaking on "Understanding OPM3: Advancing Corporate Strategy Through Projects." The live webinar is open to all who register before the event.
This webinar will be available for play-back for MSSIG members from March 10th 2005.
SUBJECT Understanding OPM3: Advancing Corporate Strategy Through Projects
After years in development, the Organizational Project Management Maturity Model (OPM3) has been beta tested with dozens of companies seeking to take the principles of applied project management beyond the realm of tactics and into the realm of corporate strategy. Former PMI/OPM3 Program Manager and recognized OPM3 thought leader John Schlicter describes how this organization-wide management system can help companies achieve their strategic objectives through the interdependent relationships of project, program and portfolio management. As the pressures of a customer centric business environment force marketing strategy and corporate strategy to become one and the same, OPM's potential as an operational linchpin between marketing and the rest of the organization makes it one of today's most compelling PM topics.
Presenter OPM Experts CEO and former PMI/OPM3 Program Manager, John Schlicter
Host Dave Hutchinson, VC Programs and Education
Date Thursday, March 3rd
Live event 2:00 p.m. EST, 1:00 p.m. CST, 12:00 p.m. MST, 11:00 p.m. PST
Prabhas SinhaDirector - Product Management| CAHyderabad, India
In your CMMi journey, it really shouldnt matter whether you're using OPM3 or PMBok project management methodology OR Waterfall or Agile software development methodology. CMMi is prescriptive so as long as you have the processes in place, it should just work fine. You can look at ProcessMax, TeraQuest or Digite that can help you here. Saving Changes...
John SchlichterFounder| OPM Experts LLC http://opmexperts.comAtlanta, Ga, United States
If Mr. Sinha meant that CMMI's process improvement methodology can be applied to any set of processes, then I can agree with that. However, I respectfully disagree with Mr. Sinha that the paradigm and/or methodology that an organization adopts in order to, in Sally's words, help "our projects to be delivered consistently, on-time and within budget" does not matter. Organizations wherein CMMI has been adopted have a leg up insofar as they are process-oriented, Sally. But the CMMI was not designed with the purpose of helping organizations to select (originate) and deliver projects of any kind successfully, consistently, and predictably. OPM3 was designed with this purpose (of helping organizations to select and deliver projects successfully, consistently, and predictably), incorporates the PMI PMBOK Guide, and has much more content associated with improving project management and the environment wherein projects are managed than CMMI does, although your investment in CMMI can be advantageous for your OPM3 implementation. My firm has helped several CMMI organizations implement OPM3, including most recently Northrop Grumman, the multi-billion dollar defense company that has adopted CMMI.
I have been following this discussion thread with a great deal of interest. ProcessMax has been mentioned by Mark (Mr. Perry) as a web-based software project management solution in support of CMMI. In visiting their web site though, I wasn't able to establish with clarity the degree of process and workflow automation that this solution offers. This topic has been of particular interest to me in the last few months. Can anyone be so kind as to shed some light on this subject. In particular, are there any integrated and “process-automated” IT governance and project management software solutions that implement CMMI and/or OPM3? (By process and workflow automation I mean far more than a prescriptive, content-driven, form-based approach and by implementation I mean near compliance if not full compliance). For instance, how do Mercury, Compuware (Changepoint), IBM Rational, Segue, Niku (Clarity), MS (EPM), Borland, to name only a few, fair in this regard? Your insight and comments in this subject will be fully appreciated. Saving Changes...
Anonymous
Ben, we had the same requirements and interests that you mentioned, such as process and workflow automated features for PM and SDLC and with PPM tool functionality, and we looked at all of the leading PPM vendors and applications. Most of them had an ability to address workflow to a degree more than prescriptive, content-driven, templates. However, none of the PPM vendor tools came with complete, ready to use, content in support of PM and SDLC process workflows. You had to have or put together the content. By the end of our analysis we concluded that we needed three things, 1) a PPM tool and selected Tenrox, 2) a collaboration platform and chose Microsoft SharePoint since we already use it, and 3) project management process content and chose Processes On Demand by BOT International. For our formal IT project portfolio, Tenrox is used and we use the Processes On Demand content with Tenrox workflows. For projects outside the formal IT portfolio and PPM system, those managing projects (formal or casual project managers) use Processes On Demand along with SharePoint. We found the PPM tools to be a bit pricey, but we needed and will benefit from the funtionality. SharePoint and Processes On Demand are "bargains" and we found them to be very attractive (low priced) compared to others. Saving Changes...
