The Middle East region is putting its project management practices to the test.
By: Jeff Bouley
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Any project-driven organization — in any part of the world — needs some basic principles, processes and standards to get the most out of its projects. But organizations across the globe realize it’s not just about what you know, but how well you execute it. This shift is leading to an increased interest in gauging the performance of project management practices, especially in the Middle East region.
“Nowadays, many organizations in the Middle East are finding their business growth is driven by taking more projects in different industries,” says Bassam A. Samman, PMP, CEO and founder of Collaboration Management and Control Solutions (CMCS) in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. “This has made them understand the need for delivering those projects successfully, and for which they have started adopting professional project management practices. We are seeing now more organizations are setting up their own project management offices [PMOs] and requiring their staff to become [Project Management Professional] PMP® certified.”
Mr. Samman says he and his firm are among those ready to step up and help organizations gauge the project performance-capabilities of their organizations, with the use of PMI’s Organizational Project Management Maturity Model (OPM3®). PMI designed the OPM3 and related portfolio of performance resources — called the OPM3 ProductSuite® — to help organizations measure their current performance against best practices and plan for future improvement.
“OPM3 is very important for the Middle East companies and public sectors because we have witnessed exponential growth — some unprecedented — with a shy migration to the project-driven discipline, although the massive development is being implemented through projects,” says Saadi Adra, PMP, CMCS’ PMI Certified OPM3 Assessor and Consultant. “The need to optimize the use of the more scarce professional resources is a major issue.”
Keeping initiatives and projects aligned with organizational strategy is key for any and all businesses, Mr. Samman adds. “The larger the volume of work, the geographical span or the more mission-critical their projects are, or the commodity in trade, the more they need to conduct OPM3 assessments.”
In general, organizational enablers (including executive sponsorship, resource allocation and training) and project management standardization are the main areas of focus for organizations in the Middle East seeking to assess their performance-capabilities. And this has been most evident in enterprises operating in the oil and gas, telecommunication, and construction and engineering sectors, as well as government organizations and holding companies—all of which are ideal for and receptive to OPM3, Mr. Samman says.
“I worked on several quality models before,” Mr. Adra says. “OPM3 replaces several proprietary methods and techniques that I — and I bet many other consultants like myself — have been using before, and it replaces it with a standardized and more reliable method.”
