Organizational project management

The term Organizational Project Management (OPM) was coined by John Schlichter in May 1998 in a meeting of the Standards Committee of the Project Management Institute, where OPM was defined as the execution of an organization's strategies through projects by combining the systems of portfolio management, program management, and project management.

Definition

According to PMI (2003, 2008, 2013)

Organizational Project Management is the systematic management of projects, programs, and portfolios in alignment with the achievement of strategic goals. The concept of organizational project management is based on the idea that there is a correlation between an organization's capabilities in project management, program management, and portfolio management, and the organization's effectiveness in implementing strategy.

Importance of organizational project management

As businesses change at a faster rate, it is becoming increasingly important to execute on projects. Additionally, due to the broad nature of much of the change, projects are affecting larger parts of the organization. Therefore, just as the need to perform projects is increasing, the complexity in executing them is also increasing. Organizational project management draws from the broad base of project management and organizational design applications to understand the organizational processes that affect the ability to manage the delivery of projects.

PMI Inc. has established OPM3 to help organizations assess and improve the capability of their organizational project management.

See also

Organizational Project Management Maturity Model OPM3
Program management
Project Management Institute
Project management
Portfolio management
Systems thinking

References

PMI (2003). Organizational Project Management
Aubrey, M., Hobbs, B., & Thuillier, D., Organisational project management: An historical approach to the study of PMOs, International Journal of Project Management, 26(1), 38-43, 2008