Organizational Project Management (OPM) involves the systematic management and integration of temporary projects, programs, and portfolios to enable strategic initiatives in organizations. OPM can be viewed as both an organizational structure, where companies are made up of interconnected projects, and as a set of practices to evaluate and improve project management maturity. Effective OPM requires considering key elements like positioning projects within the organization's strategy, governance structures, interfaces between projects, practices, and performance measurement.

1. Defining Organizational Project Management
Dr. Nigel L. Williams, PMP, Prince2
( Twitter) @org_pm
OPM COP/ University of Bedfordshire

2. Organizational Project
Management (OPM) COP
• PMI Online community that examines the
strategic role of PM (http://opm.vc.pmi.org)
• Discussions
• Content
– Webinars
– Podcasts
– White Papers

3. Background
• Increasing importance of PM
• Trillions of dollars spent in Projects Worldwide
• Increasing investments in PM
• PM emerging as a important profession ( >20
million PMs worldwide)

4. • How do organizations create value?
• What is the relationship between PM and
Strategy?
• Why should organizations have a project
strategy
• How can organizations craft a project
strategy?

5. How do Organizations create
value?
• Outside-In • Inside Out
― Environmental and – Resource Based
Competitive Forces (Penrose 1959,
Approaches (Porter Barney 1991)
1980, Miller and – Dynamic
Friesen 1983) Capabilities (Teece
― Entry Deterrence et al., 1994)
(Shipario 1989)

6. Projects, Strategy and
Uncertainty
Pre 1960’s 1960-1990 1990 to Present
Environmental Uncertainty
Pidd, M. (1996)

7. Puzzles
• No ambiguity about the problem
• The issues and options are clear
• PM for adjustment
– Type 1 projects(Turner & Cochrane, 1993 ):
:Defined Method & Defined Outcome e.g
Construction projects

8. Problems
• Formulation of problem may be agreed
• Variety of approaches to solving it.
• PM for Adaptation
– Type 2: Defined Outcome NOT Method, eg
Product development
– Type 3:Defined Method NOT Outcome, eg
Software development

9. Messes
• High ambiguity
• No agreement about issues
• PM as an organizing framework
– Type 4 Projects :Undefined Method AND
Unknown Outcomes, e.g. Organizational
Development

10. Example: Widget Co
• Widget manufacturer
• Identifies possible need for additional
capacity
– Puzzle: Build facility
– Problem: Build facility or outsource?
– Mess: Do we need additional capacity? Where?
Dr Nigel L. Williams, PMP 10

11. Current View (Outside- In):
Projects are an instrument
Portfolio Adjustment
Portfolio: Projects &
Strategy Strategic Programs: Operations
Objectives Defined
Outcomes
Business Impact

12. Existing Perspective may be
inadequate
• Greater role for PM in Organizations
– Shorter horizon for strategy
– Increasing numbers of Projects
– Greater complexity of Projects

13. What is Known about OPM?
• Evidence Based Approach
• Dimension current knowledge
• Understand major paradigms
• Build research informed definition of OPM

14. Research Method
• Systematic Review
– Tool employed in Medicine: Cochrane Collaboration
(US)
– Policy EPPI Centre (UK)
– Management (Evidenceinformedmanagement.com)

15. Systematic Review Process
• Identify keywords
• Identify databases
• Scan databases
• Review abstracts
• Create final list of studies for review

16. Systematic Review of OPM
• Keywords
– “OPM”, “OPM3”, “P3M3”,”P2M”,
“Organizational Project Management”, “Project
Management AND Organizations”
• 79 Studies published from 1989 to 2011
• Final group of 31 articles

17. Paradigms of OPM
• OPM as Structure
• OPM as Practice

18. OPM as Structure
• Companies as collections of projects
(Garies 1989,1990) Based Project
Project A
Organization Project
C
Traditional
Project
B Project
WidgetCo D
Mkt Eng IT Shared Technology
Shared Client
Related Objectives

19. OPM as Structure
• Key company challenges: Integrating and
Differentiating
Differentiating
Creating new
Integrating
projects to
Combining
respond to
Project Outputs
threats/
opportunities

20. OPM as Structure: Change
• Organizational Change Management
• Projects: 1st order change
• Programs: 2nd order change
Programs
Widgetco
Project

21. OPM as Practice
• Maturity Models
– Operations
– Software
• Evaluate current activities against best
practice
• Identify areas for improvement
• Implement improvement actions

22. Maturity Models Compared
Areas
Maturity Model Goals Assessed Classification
Projects,
Align PM to Programs, 1 (standardize) to 4
OPM3 (PMI) Strategy Portfolios (Continuously improve)
Align PM to Projects, 1 (haphazard) to 5
P2M- Japan Strategy Programs, (optimization)
Projects,
Improve project Programs, 1 (awareness) to 5
P3M3- UK practice Portfolios (optimized)
Project Excellence Improve project Continuous scale from
Model practices Projects 1 to 1000

23. Linkages
• Structure- Practice
• Organizations may create projects to
respond to opportunities
– Projects may create new practices
– If they are found to be superior, may become
best practice

24. OPM Definition
Organizational Project Management is the
systematic management and integration of
temporary activities (projects, programs and
portfolios) to enable the realization of
strategic initiatives in enterprises

25. Combination of Inside Out AND
Outside In Approaches
• (Outside- In) PM supports the creation and
modification of firm competencies
– Facilitates adaptation to changing environment
– Organizations may also influence the environment
for their own benefit (Oliver & Holzinger, 2008)
• (Inside- Out) PM can also be used to redefine
organizations
– Change programs
– New technology
– New business processes

26. OPM( Combination of Outside in and Inside Out):
PM Integrated with strategy
• Two way relationship between projects and
strategy
• OPM’s role is greater than simply alignment
Portfolio Adjustment
Portfolio: Projects &
Strategy Strategic Programs: Operations
Objectives Defined
Outcomes
Business Impact

27. Formulating Project Strategy:
Decision Areas
Positioning
Governance Architecture
OPM
Performance
Interfaces
Measures
Practices

28. Positioning
• Role of Project Management in the
Organization
• Driving Strategy
– Project Driven Organizations/Project Based
Organizations: Construction, Consulting, Lean
Startups
– Enabling Strategy: Companies undergoing large
scale transformation
– Supporting Strategy : Projects to execute defined
objectives

29. Project Positioning
Primarily
Inside- out
Strategy
Formulation
Perspective
Primarily
Outside- in
Supporter Enabler Driver

30. Architecture
• Configuration of Projects, Programs,
Portfolio within a given company setting

31. Project Architecture
• Number
• Scale
• Complexity
• Project Type 1-4

32. Governance
• Systems for
managing
responsibility for
Projects/Progra
m/Portfolio
• Systems for
demonstrating
accountability

33. Governance Structures
• Project Manager
• Project Office
• PMO
• EPMO

34. Interfaces
• Linkages between
Projects/Programs/Portfolio
• Linkages between PPP and Operations

35. Interfaces
• Functional Interfaces (Iqbal 2009)
– Integration between PPP
• Domain Interfaces
– Integration with enterprise

36. Practices
• Project/Program/Portfolio level activities
• Methodologies, Tools and Techniques

37. Practices
• Current Practices
• Rate of Improvement
• Path of development

38. Performance Measures
• Approaches used to evaluate Project
/Program/Portfolio outcomes and
processes

39. Comparison of Project Based
Organizations
• Project Based Organizations
• Company 1: Engineering firm in energy
sector
• Company 2: Construction firm

40. Company 1(Engineering Firm)
PM is Strategic
Architecture
Governance
Type 1 Projects (Custom Manufacturing)
Project Team
Type 2 Projects (Product Development)
Practices
Performance Measures
Interfaces Derived from PMBOK
From PMBOK
Functional (Shared Trajectory of
technology/resources) Output:
development: Toward
Cost/Time/Quality
higher maturity

41. Company 1
Domain Gaps Recommendations
Governance Lack of framework for Project Team supported
monitoring multiple projects by Integrating
Information System
Practices/ Output oriented Incorporate
Performance No measures for input/process metrics
Measures improvement/innovation Incorporate metrics for
identifying
new/improved practice
Architecture/ Multiple unconnected Group projects by shared
Interfaces projects technology/Functions
Functional Interfaces

42. Company 2
PM is Strategic
Architecture Governance
Type 1 projects (Construction) PMO
Interfaces
Performance Measures
Functional (Shared
Practices OPM3
resources)
PMI Trajectory: Toward Higher
Domain (Finance/Marketing)
level of maturity

43. Company 2
Domain Gaps Recommendations
Governance Low investment in Implement internal
training/developing PMs mentoring/PM
competency
development program
Practices/ Output oriented Incorporate
Performance No measures for input/process metrics
Measures improvement/innovation Incorporate metrics for
identifying
new/improved practice
Architecture/ Functional/Domain interfaces Project dashboard
Interfaces providing views from
both domains

44. Future Research
• Empirical validation of OPM Elements
• Process view of Project Management and
strategy; beyond life cycles
• OPM Competencies

45. Summary
• Organizations are engaging in increasing
number of projects
• Project Managers need to go beyond
deliverables
• OPM can link Projects with context
• Provides view of organizations rooted in
Project Management

46. Contact Information
Nigel Williams
Nigel.williams@vcleader.pmi.org,
nigel.williams@beds.ac.uk
Org_pm (Twitter), OPM COP, OPM group on
Linkedin

47. References
• Barney, J. (1991). Firm resources and sustained competitive advantage.
Journal of Management, 17(1), 99–120
• Gareis, R. Management by project: the management approach for the future,
International Journal of Project Management, (1989), Vol. 7, No. 4, pp. 243 -
249.
• Miller, D. and Friesen, P. (1983). Strategy-making and the environment: the
third link. Strategic Management Journal, 4(3), 221–235.
• Penrose, E. (1959). The Theory of the Growth of the Firm. London: Basil
Blackwell.
• M. Pidd (1996) Tools for Thinking: Modelling in Management science. Wiley,
Chichester.

48. References
• Porter, M. (1980). Competitive Strategy. New York: Free Press
• Shapiro, C. (1989). The theory of business strategy. RAND Journal of
Economics, 20(1), 125–137.
• Teece, D. and Pisano, G. (1994). The dynamic capabilities of firms: an
introduction. Industrial and Corporate Change, 3(3), 537–556.