Answers to your frequently asked questions about PMI’s Organizational Project Management Maturity Model (OPM3®).
1. What is OPM3? 
2. What is the difference between the OPM3 Online Self-Assessment and OPM3® ProductSuite Assessment?
3. What does the OPM3® Single-User Version contain?
4. What does the OPM3® Multi-User Version contain?
5. How will OPM3 benefit my organization?
6. How can OPM3 be applied in my organization?
7. How will OPM3 help my organization achieve or impact its strategic direction?
8. How does OPM3 impact strategic planning?
9. How does OPM3 link project success to organizational strategy?
10. How does OPM3 scale to organizations of differing sizes?
11. Is there an online demonstration?
12. Is there a formal user community sanctioned by PMI?
13. How does OPM3 compare with other maturity models such as SEI’s Capability Maturity Model® Integration?
14. Who do I contact at PMI for more information or for help with a problem?
1. What is OPM3?
OPM3 is an acronym for PMI’s Organizational Project Management Maturity Model. This global standard was developed under PMI’s stewardship to provide a way for organizations to understand their organizational project management competencies and to measure their maturity, or stage of process development, against best practices. OPM3 also helps organizations plan their organizational project management maturity improvement.
PMI’s first maturity standard for organizations, OPM3 focuses on an organization’s knowledge, assessment and improvement:
- • The product knowledge element describes why organizational project management and maturity are important and how to recognize enterprise competency.
- • The assessment element is the procedure an organization uses to determine its maturity.
- • The improvement element provides information on how an organization can increase its organizational project management maturity.
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2. What is the difference between the OPM3 Online Self-Assessment and OPM3® ProductSuite Assessment?
The OPM3 Online Self-Assessment provides user organizations with a basic, broad-brush picture of the state of their project management maturity and areas most in need of improvement. This may be a good starting point for many organizations, before committing more time and resources to assessing and increasing maturity. The OPM3® ProductSuite Assessment represents a more substantial investment and involves certified assessment support. This process provides an advanced, rigorous methodology, using sophisticated software tools, and yielding data that is detailed, nuanced and actionable.
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OPM3 Online Self-Assessment |
OPM3® ProductSuite Assessment |
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• Generally conducted by the organization |
• Conducted under the direction of PMI Certified OPM3 AssessorTM or PMI Certified OPM3 ConsultantTM |
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• Indication-based. No verification of the answers given is performed. Indication of maturity. |
• Evidence-based. Requires interviews of multiple stakeholders and documentation of existence of processes being claimed. Measures actual maturity. |
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• Best practice-level assessment, with possible manual capability-level. |
• Capability-level assessment and is fully-automated. |
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• Binary scoring (yes and No questions). |
• Two scoring methods: binary and OPM3® ProductSuite scoring, with point system allowing graduated or partial scores on many items. |
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• Fixed number of questions. |
• Number of questions is limited only be selected scope of assessment, based on targeted domains, improvement stages and business results. |
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• Allows multiple assessments, but with manual compilation of results. (PMI’s benchmarking capabilities are available to participants.) |
• Allows for multiple assessments, with automated compilation or merged assessments and future benchmarking potential. |
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• Manual Improvement Plan |
• Automated Improvement Planning Tool |
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• Manual application of assessment to strategic goals. |
• Relation to strategy is designed into the tools |
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3. What does the OPM3® Single-User Version contain?
The product includes a knowledge element as an electronic file with the cut/paste/print capabilities disabled, along with a print OPM3® Knowledge Foundation book. It also includes the assessment element, an interactive database providing users the ability to perform assessments while using information in the OPM3 best practices section.
For organizations interested in improving their organizational maturity, OPM3 includes an interactive database that provides the necessary road map for improvements. The improvement element is a unique feature not available with other maturity models.
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4. What does the OPM3® Multi-User Version contain?
This product is a fully functioning version of OPM3 that may be installed on an organization’s network. In addition to receiving 15 copies of the OPM3 Knowledge Foundation book, users may access the electronic OPM3 self-assessment and databases from one network location by using identification numbers/passwords provided by the organization’s network administrator.
In the multi-user version, OPM3 self-assessment data is tied to the person who generated it, so that OPM3 self-assessment data will be accessible only to those who enter that person’s user identification and password. Another unique feature of the multi-user version is the OPM3® Self-Assessment Workbook, which lets users assemble assessment data from up to 15 people.
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5. How will OPM3® benefit my organization?
OPM3 provides:
- • A way to advance an organization’s strategic goals by applying project management principles and practices. It bridges the gap between an organization’s strategy and its individual projects.
- • A comprehensive body of knowledge regarding best practices in organizational project management.
- • An understanding of which organizational project management best practices and capabilities an organization has and hasn’t achieved.
- • Guidance on improvement priorities and planning.
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6. How can OPM3 be applied in my organization?
OPM3 is the authoritative maturity model used to help organizations achieve their strategic goals by developing their project, program and portfolio management capabilities. Developed by a global team of hundreds of project management practitioners, OPM3:
- • Cuts across organizational size and type boundaries
- • Can be applied throughout the world
- • Can be used effectively in virtually any industry
OPM3 provides the means for organizations to assess their current state of project management maturity across the enterprise at all levels. It provides guidance on priorities and planning for organizations seeking improvement in any or all of these areas.
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7. How will OPM3 help my organization achieve or impact its strategic direction?
OPM3 provides a way for organizations to advance their strategic goals by using project, program and portfolio management principles and practices. It is designed to help organizations align diverse aspects of their operations with their overall business strategy.
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8. How does OPM3 impact strategic planning?
OPM3 helps organizations identify capability deficiencies that could lead to a lack of necessary policies and process standards to support the organization’s strategies. It will help those organizations that want to pursue improvements by offering an improvement plan and a path forward.
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9. How does OPM3 link project success to organizational strategy?
It is a critical challenge for organizations to remain focused on their strategic objectives while adapting to external forces often beyond their control. Projects help organizations efficiently address strategic challenges in today’s rapidly shifting world. Because organizations are goal-directed and constantly undertaking changes to accomplish their strategy, they can use projects to help them advance the many dimensions of a strategic initiative.
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10. How does OPM3 scale to organizations of differing sizes?
Because it is a robust tool, OPM3 is scalable for small and large, for-profit and not-for-profit organizations. The organizations can focus on the best practices that are most relevant to their needs.
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11. Is there an online demonstration?
Visit OPM3’s online demonstration.
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12. Is there a formal user community sanctioned by PMI?
Purchasers of both the single-user and multi-user versions of OPM3 receive identification numbers inviting them to access the OPM3® Online User Community. There, buyers can participate in discussions with other users, receive updated information, complete surveys and post OPM3 feedback. Visit the Online User Community.
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13. How does OPM3 compare with other maturity models such as SEI’s Capability Maturity Model® Integration?
OPM3 is the only organizational project management maturity standard. During its design, the project team reviewed and analyzed 27 contemporary maturity models to identify points to emulate and issues to avoid. The team determined that no other existing maturity model offered the depth and breadth of organizational project management best practices or illustrates with such clarity the interrelationships between those best practices. In addition, no other model uses OPM3’s three interlocking elements — knowledge, assessment and improvement.
In fact, the interactive database application accessible on OPM3® Online warehouses hundreds of best practices; thousands of capabilities, outcomes and key performance indicators; and thousands of dependencies between and among best practices.
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14. Who do I contact at PMI for more information or for help with a problem?
Whether you need more information or have questions concerning technical difficulties with your installation or OPM3® Online, please send an e-mail to Customer Care.
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