OPM3
I am heading up to Philadephia today to meet with PMI’s Organizational Project Management Maturity Model (OPM3) update team. OPM3 is for organizations that recognize the need to improve the results they achieve from project management across the organization. The knowledge foundation identifies Portfolio Management, Program Management, Project Management, and Organizational Enabler best practices neccessary to align strategic goals to the successful completion of projects. Using the assessment tool, an organization can identify their level of maturity in these capabilities and develop a roadmap path to improving the maturity of these capabilities.
A recent poll in at allPM.com indicates over 65% of businesses intend to wait at least a year before performing this type of assessment. 30% don’t intend to perform an OPM3 assessment at all. Only 4% intend to start this within the next 6 months.
While this indicates an reasonably high level of interest in performing this Organizational Project Management assessment (70%), it leaves me wondering why the interest is so far out. Is it that the pain of performing project poorly isn’t high enough in these companies? Is it that the financial return of performing this type of assessment aren’t clear? Or is it that Project Management Organizations can’t get the executive support needed to perform an assessment like this?
The Organizational Project Management disciplines that ensure organizations are working on the right projects (Portfolio Management), coordinating the projects well (Program Management), and performing the projects effectively (Project Management) are critical to any company that is facing pressure to change their business for any reason. If the capabilities required to accomplish these are not subject to purposeful improvement, the organization will suffer in its attempts to achieve its strategic and operational goals. Unless your organization is in the 10-20% of organizations that feel they perform project management successfully, it seems to me that now would be the time to start understanding how to improve the maturity of your important organizational project management capabilities.