Page 22 - Organizational Project Management

Chapter 1—Foundational Concepts

The progression of increasing maturity designed into OPM3 consists of
several dimensions, or different ways of looking at an organization’s matu-
rity. One dimension involves viewing Best Practices in terms of their asso-
ciation with the progressive stages of process improvement—from
standardization to measurement to control and, ultimately, to continuous
improvement. (See Section 3.5 for a full explanation of this concept.)
Another dimension involves the progression of Best Practices associated
with each of the domains (see Chapter 4), first addressing Project Man-
agement, then Program Management, and finally, Portfolio Management.
Each of these progressions is a continuum along which most organizations
aspire to advance.

Figure 1-2: Organizational Project Management Maturity increases along a continuum

Also, within these two dimensions is the progression of incremental
Capabilities leading to each Best Practice.
Taken as a whole, these three dimensions constitute valuable reference
points when an organization assesses its maturity in organizational project
management and considers possible plans for improvement.
OPM3 was intentionally designed without an overall system of “levels”
of maturity. Establishing specific maturity levels can be relatively straight-
forward if the progression of maturity is one-dimensional. For example,
as just discussed, there is a progression of four stages of process maturity
from process standardization through continuous process improvement.
OPM3, however, is multi-dimensional. In addition to the three dimensions
described above, OPM3 also categorizes the Capabilities in terms of their
association with the five project management process groups (Initiating,
Planning, Executing, Controlling, and Closing), permitting evaluation of a
fourth dimension of maturity.
Multiple perspectives for assessing maturity allow flexibility in applying
the model to the unique needs of an organization. This approach also pro-
duces a more robust body of information than is possible with a simpler,
linear system of levels, giving the organization greater detail in support
of decisions and plans for improvement.

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