| Project Management in Motion
Despite some challenges, the OPM3® update
team continues its work on revising the standard.
by Michelle Bowles
Project Management Professional (PMP®) credential holders understand the value of continually re-assessing their processes and methods to improve themselves and their organizations. PMI is no different, updating its standards every five years with best practices, capabilities, outcomes and key performance indicators.
Since 2004, the Organizational Project Management Maturity Model (OPM3®) update team has been gathering customer feedback and analyzing the current standard as it prepares to publish the second edition in 2008.
Getting Aligned
The team—comprising approximately 200 volunteers—has challenging times ahead. In addition to its normal duties, the team also must position the OPM3 update in accordance with four other PMI standards: A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide)—Fourth Edition, The Standard for Program Management—Second Edition, The Standard for Portfolio Management—Second Edition and the Unified Project Management Lexicon.
The simultaneous release is a major undertaking, as each standard must align with one another “in order to avoid discrepancies,” says Nancy Wilkinson, PMI standards project specialist.
Each standard has its own revision team. To ensure communication among those teams, each one has a liaison who coordinates with the other team liaisons, says Ted Boccuzzi, PMP, OPM3 update team project communication coordinator and construction services manager at PMK Group, Cranford, N.J., USA. “There is a lot of risk involved as far as communication and coordination,” he says.
“It will be challenging for all the teams to get in sync, but everyone is very enthusiastic about this challenge,” adds Ms. Wilkinson.
Organizational Breakdown
The OPM3 update is led by a core team—which includes the project manager and deputy project manager—that meets quarterly. Below the core team are a number of sub-teams, including the Architecture Team, Development Team, Quality Team, Research Team, Marketing/Customer Feedback Team and Support Team. Each sub-team has its own deadlines and portions of the update for which it is responsible.
Volunteer team members come from all professional levels and every area of the world. Participants choose how much or how little time they dedicate to the revision project, as well as which area they prefer to work in, such as marketing, customer feedback, quality control and mentoring.
“Volunteers typically give the team one to two hours per week, but a number give a whole lot more—whether or not they’re in a leadership position like the project manager or the deputy project manager,” Ms. Wilkinson says.
Looking Ahead
Currently, the OPM3 team is concentrating on reaching its next milestone: providing a draft to the Subject Matter Expert Review Team and the Standards Member Advisory Group in March 2007.
Reaching this milestone, however, hasn’t been without roadblocks. In July 2006, PMI announced the release of the OPM3® ProductSuite Certification Program, and the OPM3 standard was scrutinized to ensure the new suite of products aligned with the standard. The team did find some inconsistencies in the draft it was working on, Mr. Boccuzzi says, and had to rewrite portions of it. “The inconsistencies identified would have eventually been caught by the OPM3 update team. We were able to take advantage of an opportunity to do this work earlier than planned,” he says.
Once the first draft is revised and approved, the next step will be forming an exposure draft, Mr. Boccuzzi says. That version will be placed on pmi.org for members to review and offer feedback.
All that hard work and dedication comes with its own rewards. “These volunteer opportunities give me a better view of project management. It makes me a better project manager,” Mr. Boccuzzi says. “I can call my friends I have met through volunteering if I have a problem and ask them how they would handle it.”
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