Page 56 - Organizational Project Management

Chapter 6—The OPM3 Cycle

■ Attainability. Organizations may want to look for Capabilities that are easy
to achieve. This consideration can help the organization demonstrate early
success and gain valuable momentum to sustain the improvement initia-
tive.
■ Strategic Priority. Organizations may have unique strategic business rea-
sons to develop certain Capabilities before others.
■ Benefit. Some Capabilities may be more beneficial to the organization than
others, and these may be given higher priority for the short-term improve-
ment plan.
■ Cost. Lower cost Capabilities might be considered as a priority and could,
therefore, be included in an improvement plan. Cost, however, can be a
deceptive consideration if not weighed carefully in relation to the impor-
tance of other factors in the decision.
The above information acknowledges that, depending on the realities of
its own situation, an organization may or may not deviate from the Capa-
bilities sequence given for each Best Practice in the Directories. The same
can be said of the sequence for attaining Outcomes for a given Capability.
Similarly, an organization may have internal reasons for replacing a Capa-
bility or Outcome in the sequence with another OPM3 Capability or Out-
come not originally included in the sequence provided. The organization
may even choose to create an entirely new Capability or Outcome in the
sequence.
OPM3 identifies some dependencies regarding Capabilities that may
support a Best Practice, but may not be an absolute prerequisite to it. For
example, if an organization undertakes to develop a standardized process,
it may be helpful to have some members participate in a professional orga-
nization—such as an industry-specific association—which provides stan-
dards and support for standardization. However, this may not be an
absolute requirement to developing an in-house standardized process.
It should be clear that, from the present standpoint of the OPM3 Stan-
dard, a Best Practice can be said to exist only when all the associated Capa-
bilities outlined by the Standard exist or have been attained—whatever the
sequence of their development. Nevertheless, it should be equally clear that
organizational needs and conditions vary widely, and the attainment of any
of the Capabilities outlined by the Standard for a given Best Practice does
constitute progress toward that Best Practice and strengthens the organi-
zation’s overall maturity in organizational project management. An orga-
nization that elects to deviate from the Capability sequence outlined for a
Best Practice should carefully document, (on the Best Practices pages
printed from the Improvement Planning Directory during the Comprehen-
sive Assessment), the actions it took and the specific reasons for these
actions. This procedure will enhance future assessments in the organiza-
tion, and contribute to a potentially valuable body of data for the organi-
zational project management community.

6.3.4 Step Four: Implement Improvements
Once the improvement plan has been established, the organization will
need to implement the plan over time, i.e., execute requisite organizational
development activities to attain the needed Capabilities, and advance on

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