LETTER TO THE EDITOR
31 October 2020
Ref: Pells, D.L. (2020). Whatever Happened to Organizational Project Management Maturity? Editorial, PM World Journal, Vol. IX, Issue X, October. Available online at https://pmworldlibrary.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/pmwj98-Oct2020-Pells-whatever-happened-to-organizational-project-management-maturity3.pdf
Dear David,
On reading your editorial “Whatever Happened to OPM Maturity?”, I was interested to see that you are planning a series of articles on maturity in the project management field.
My interest stems from my involvement as a volunteer in the original project that created the concept of OPM Maturity, starting at the end of the last millennium and up to the release of the first edition of OPM3. The research work that I was involved in over those years was most creative and rewarding for me, and we felt that we had developed a valid and complete model (OPM3), having defined a comprehensive set not only of Best Practices but also the corresponding Capabilities, Outcomes and the KPIs (as testable statements of criteria for OPM maturity). The widespread adoption of OPM3 is a testament to the validity of that model.
The First Edition of OPM3 provided all of the basic data that we had developed, in the form of a manual and a CD. This is explained in detail in the paper on “the history of OPM3” by Ralf Friedrich, John Schlichter, and William Haeck (ref 1)
Subsequently, PMI launched a number of conflicting initiatives, training products, and tools that appeared to compete with the independent consultants aiming to provide a service based on the First Edition. This was not simply a disservice to consultants but, more importantly, in this way, PMI seriously reduced the value of the total endeavour to all of PMI’s other stakeholders. That issue was aggravated by the disappearance of all of the Capability statements, Outcome statements and KPI’s from all subsequent OPM3 editions.
Could I therefore suggest that one article in your series should be forensic investigation into the disappearance of the OPM3 Capability Statements, Outcome Statements, and KPI’s that over 800 unpaid volunteers had worked on developing over a period of 5 years with the intention of making them freely available to the entire project management community? Answering that question (namely the question of what became of the OPM3 Capability Statements, Outcome Statements, and KPI’s) would be illuminating in its own right, but more importantly it would create the possibility of sharing this missing information with a new generation of project management professionals and practitioners in ways that inspire them to continue the excellent work that preceded them.
With best regards,
Crispin (“Kik”) Piney
South of France
Reference:
Friedrich, R., Schlichter, J., & Haeck, W. (2003). The history of OPM3. Paper presented at PMI® Global Congress 2003—EMEA, The Hague, South Holland, The Netherlands. Newtown Square, PA: Project Management Institute. https://www.pmi.org/learning/library/history-organizational-project-management-maturity-7780
How to cite this work: Piney, C. (2020). On Whatever Happened to Organizational Project Management Maturity, Letter to the Editor, PM World Journal, Vol. IX, Issue XI, November. Available online at https://pmworldlibrary.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/pmwj99-Nov2020-Piney-on-organizational-pm-maturity-Letter-to-Editor.pdf
