All About OPM3

PMI's Organization Project Management Maturity Model (OPM3) is not without controversy, and things are heating up more than ever. Some tout it's ability to help organizations navigate a growth path and others claim it's too focused on academia and doesn't hit on real world issues facing project managers.

Here are a few recent articles that show the good and the bad ---- all you need to know to decide if OPM3 is for you.

First, this month, AllPM is highlighting articles on OPM3, including the following:

The Essence of OPM3

The Business Value of Maturity Assessment

OPM3 and your 'C' Level

Comparing CMMI and OPM3

For another perspective, there's a very insightful critique of OPM3 on Projects@Work:

Assessing OPM3

Of course, we need to keep in mind that it's the first iteration, and will evolve over time. I do know that there are major improvements in store for the next release. It'll be interesting to weigh in after the product matures. Meanwhile, it's a tool, and, like any other, can easily be misapplied or overused.

Maturity Models - Projects, Programmes and Portfolios

After the success of the Software Engineering Institute's Capablity Maturity Model, the methodology is now being applied to other areas. Project Management has recently seen the publication of the OPM3 model from PMI. The paper in the link below is from the UK Government OGC. It is described as a draft but has some very valuable contents, particularly the descriptions of the five maturity levels.
OGC - Portfolio, Programme and Project Management Maturity Model (P3M3)

Mapping Your Project Management Processes? Consider IDEF.

IDEF (short for "Integrated Definition"), created by the U.S. Air Force, is the de facto standard for process design. It was used to design many of the Project Management Institute's standards, including their OPM3 maturity model and their upcoming standards for Program and Portfolio Management.

Although there are multiple levels of IDEF, the basic level, IDEF0, is quite adequate for most applications and tends to be the most frequently used. Check out the IDEF site for more information...

IDEF0 Overview