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Think Outside the Project with OPM3® By Dr. Ginger Levin, PMP, PgMP, PMI Certified OPM3 Assessor and Consultant
Knowledge, assessment, and improvement are the elements of the OPM3 improvement cycle. Once you complete some or all of the activities in your OPM3 improvement plan, your organization may want you to repeat the process and perform another assessment. Doing so allows you to focus on continuous improvements in your project, program, and portfolio management practices. A new assessment may also be warranted if your organization has had a number of changes, such as mergers, acquisitions, new regulatory or legislative requirements, new strategic directions or staffing changes. Your first assessment serves as a baseline for future ones. You can also probably apply some of the lessons learned to your future assessments. You know the parts that went well, as well as the ones that may need some refinement. When you perform another assessment, you can see where your organization now stands in terms of its overall maturity and best practices. You will have a better understanding of the areas in which other improvements can add greater value to your organization. During this next assessment, you also evaluate the effectiveness of your improvement activities to ensure that they are lasting. You want to make sure that people find them beneficial to their project, program, or portfolio work. If not, you may need to take some corrective actions to help bring expected future performance in line with your plans and provide added benefits. For example, your assessment may show a need for additional work in risk response planning, which may mean you need to update your risk management plan. Some proactive actions also might be needed, such as adjusting some workplace practices, to enhance the impact of each improvement initiative. However, you may decide instead to return to your improvement plan and implement some of the unfinished areas in it. You might be able to add some new capabilities and best practices to help your organization realize more tangible business results. This approach can also assist your organization as it delivers its strategic objectives. Regardless of whether you decide to reassess or work to implement more items from your first improvement plan, now you, and others in your organization, have more familiarity with the OPM3 process and its best practices and capabilities. The people who participated in the first assessment may be able to provide more in-depth answers to your questions and suggestions for further process improvements. Improvements in organizational maturity, though, do not happen overnight. They also are not a one-time event. Value is added through each OPM3 initiative. Further opportunities for improvement will gain momentum as early successes lead to later successes. Continuous improvement is fostered to ensure alignment with organizational strategic objectives. By conducting reassessments and implementing other items in your improvement plan, you can continue to refine the OPM3 model to meet the unique needs of your organization, and to realize more benefits from its use. Through OPM3, and the implementation of its best practices, your organization can take a more agile approach in responding to the continual change and complexity so characteristic of your work today. While PMI just completed an update of the OPM3 standard, we welcome any feedback from OPM3 users. If you have any comments or suggestions as you work with this model in your organizations, e-mail OPM3success@pmi.org. For more information on OPM3, see the introduction to this series in 12 June issue, the Knowledge portion in the 26 June issue, the Assessment portion in the 10 July issue, the Improvement portion in the 24 July issue, or visit PMI.org.
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This is the last of a five-part series that focuses on PMI’s Organizational Project Management Maturity Model (OPM3®). In this article, we discuss the importance of reassessment and some additional considerations in organizational maturity modeling. 
Dr. Ginger Levin has worked in project management for more than 40 years. She is a Doctor of Public Administration, PMP, PgMP, and a PMI Certified OPM3 Assessor and Consultant. She is also a project/program/portfolio management consultant and educator. You can reach her at | Home BACK TO TOP
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