- Assessment – Evaluate the organization’s current capabilities and identify areas in need of improvement.
- Knowledge – Learn about Organizational Project Management (OPM) Best Practices.
- Improvement – Use the completed assessment to map out the steps needed to achieve performance improvement goals.
Five Levels of OPMMM:
How do we raise our organization’s level of maturity?
Common Characteristics of Level 1: Inconsistent use of project management, few people interested in project management and no serious commitment by the organization to recognize the importance of project management.
Level 1 organizations should take the following steps:
- Provide training in project management and hire certified project managers
- Support the use of project management terminology in projects
- Encourage the use of various project management tools, templates, checklists, and forms
Common Characteristics of Level 2: An understanding of the benefits of project management, support to project management across various levels, and a defined process and methodology for managing projects.
Level 2 organizations should take the following steps:
- Develop a support for project management throughout the organization
- Recognize the long term benefits of project management
- Choose one of the project management methodologies and then ensure the defined process is replicated in all projects.
Common Characteristics of Level 3: Integrated processes, whole-hearted support by the organization to the singular project management methodology, and less paperwork for rigid policies and procedures.
Level 3 organizations should take the following steps:
- Integrate all processes into a universally accepted project management methodology
- Develop a sense of shared responsibility for the principles of project management
Common Characteristics of Level 4: Existence of a project management office (PMO) dedicated to improving processes and performance of both quantitative and qualitative benchmarking.
Level 4 organizations should take the following steps:
- Create a culture of benchmarking within the organization
- Set up a project management benchmarking process as utilized in Six Sigma BPI projects.
- Understand the benefits of benchmarking
Common Characteristics of Level 5: Creation of lessons learned after each project and application of lessons learned from previous projects into subsequent projects.
Level 5 organizations should take the following steps:
- Formalized post project review process
- Implementation of lessons learned
