Guide to Using the Organizational Project Management Capacity Assessment Tool
5. The Structure of the Assessment
5.1 Knowledge Areas
The OPMCA is designed to assess the project management capacity of an organization and is organized according to the project management knowledge areas of the Project Management Body of Knowledge 4 and the Project Management Institute's The Standard on Program Management 1 and The Standard for Portfolio Management 6. This assessment also considers two additional categories of capacity: organizational support structures and project management standards. For the purposes of this guide, all assessment categories will be referred to as knowledge areas.
Table 1 illustrates how the knowledge areas are further organized into major capabilities:
- Organizational integration;
- Core project management; and
- Supporting project management.
As Table 1 illustrates, the organizational integration and supporting project management capabilities can be viewed as supporting the knowledge areas required to leverage the full benefit of each of the core project management capabilities. Note that organizational integration and supporting project management functions are typically provided by the organization; core project management functions are typically the responsibility of the projects, within an organizational project management framework.
| Organizational Integration | Investment Portfolio Management | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Investment Program Management | |||||
| Organizational Support Structures | |||||
| Project Management Standards | |||||
| Code Project Management | Project Integration Management | Project Scope Management | Project Time Management | Project Cost Management | Project Risk Management |
| Supporting Project Management | Project Quality Management | ||||
| Project Procurement Management | |||||
| Project Human Resources Management | |||||
| Project Communications Management | |||||
Organizational integration capabilities are important for ensuring that the right projects are initiated. Core project management capabilities, supported by project management areas, are key to ensuring that the right project is executed in the right way.
The significance of each of the knowledge areas and their organization into the three major capabilities will be discussed or explained further in section 7, "Completing the Assessment."
To differentiate from the Government of Canada's definition of program and portfolio management, the OPMCA will use the terms "investment program management" and "investment portfolio management."
An investment program is defined as a group of related projects managed in a coordinated way to obtain benefits and control not available from managing them individually. Investment programs may include elements of related work that is outside the scope of the discrete projects in the program7.
An investment portfolio is defined as a collection of projects or programs and other work grouped together to facilitate effective management of that work to meet strategic business objectives8. The projects or programs in the investment portfolio may not necessarily be interdependent or directly related9.
| Knowledge Areas | Definition |
|---|---|
| Organizational Integration | |
| 1. Investment portfolio management | This refers to the selection and support of projects or investment program investments. These investments in projects and investment programs are guided by the organization’s strategic plan and available resources. |
| 2. Investment program management | This refers to the centralized, coordinated management of an investment program, designed to achieve the program’s strategic objectives and benefits. |
| 3. Organizational support structures | These are the organizational structures and mechanisms that support project, investment program, and investment portfolio management. |
| 4. Project management standards | This refers to evidence of compliance with a standard methodology that reflects best practices for project management, investment program management, and investment portfolio management. |
| Core Project Management | |
| 5. Project integration ,anagement | This includes the processes and activities needed to identify, define, combine, unify, and coordinate the various processes and project management activities within the project management process groups. Within the project management context, integration includes characteristics of unification, consolidation, articulation and integrative actions that are crucial to project completion and to successfully meeting customer and stakeholder requirements and expected outcomes. |
| 6. Project scope management | This primarily consists of defining and controlling what is and what is not included in the scope of the project. It includes processes needed to ensure that the project includes all the work required, and only the work required, to complete the project successfully, based on the original or formally updated requirements. |
| 7. Project time management | This includes the processes required to accomplish timely completion of the project. |
| 8. Project cost management | This includes the processes involved in planning, estimating, budgeting, and controlling costs so that the project can be completed within the approved budget. |
| 9. Project risk management | This includes the processes concerned with conducting risk management planning, identification, analysis, responses, and monitoring and control on a project. It also includes the completion of project complexity and risk assessments as required by the Policy on the Management of Projects. |
| Supporting Project Management | |
| 10. Project quality management | This includes the processes and activities of the performing organization that determine quality-related policies, objectives, and responsibilities to ensure that the project will satisfy the business needs for which it was undertaken. A quality management system implements policy and procedures, through continuous process improvement activities, as appropriate. |
| 11. Project procurement management | This includes the processes required to purchase or acquire the products, services, or results needed from outside the project team to deliver project outputs and outcomes. Project procurement management also includes the contract management and change control processes required to administer contracts or purchase orders issued by authorized project team members. It also includes administering any contract(s) issued by an outside organization (the buyer) that is acquiring the management services for the project from the performing organization (the seller) and administering contractual obligations placed on the project team by the contract. |
| 12. Project human resources management | This includes the organization and management of the project team. The project team is comprised of the people who have assigned roles and responsibilities for completing the project. |
| 13. Project communications management | This includes the processes required to ensure timely and appropriate generation, collection, distribution, storage, retrieval, and ultimate disposal of project information. |
5.2 Organizational Project Management Capacity Classifications
To reflect the relative importance of one knowledge area versus another, relative weightings have been defined for each assessment category. Therefore, the raw score resulting from each assessed knowledge area will be adjusted according to the relative weight for each assessment category. Table 3 outlines the weighted values.
| Knowledge Area | No. of Questions | Weighting | Maximum Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total | 92 | 100% | 460 |
| Investment Portfolio Management and Investment Program Management | 10 | 5% | 50 |
| Organizational Support Structures | 9 | 5% | 45 |
| Project Management Standards | 20 | 10% | 100 |
| Project Integration Management | 21 | 16% | 105 |
| Project Scope Management | 4 | 10% | 20 |
| Project Time Management | 5 | 12% | 25 |
| Project Cost Management | 7 | 12% | 35 |
| Project Risk Management | 4 | 10% | 20 |
| Project Quality Management | 2 | 5% | 10 |
| Project Procurement Management | 4 | 5% | 10 |
| Project Human Resource Management | 4 | 5% | 20 |
| Project Communications | 2 | 5% | 10 |
The assessment tool tabulates a score out of 460 points. Expressed as a percentage, this score corresponds to the capacity class ratings shown in Table 4.
| Capacity Class | Definition | Rating |
|---|---|---|
| 0. Limited |
Spending authority is limited to $1,000,000. At this class, organizations tend not to have consistent project management discipline but instead rely on the skills of individual project managers for success. |
< 25 / 100 |
| 1. Sustaining |
The organization has the capacity to successfully deliver projects to maintain its operational capacity. At this class, organizations tend to apply basic project management capabilities to projects, project planning tends to be more efficient and reporting often begins to be centralized. |
25 – 49 / 100 |
| 2. Tactical |
The organization has the capacity to successfully deliver projects to adjust its operations to meet planned objectives. At this class, project management processes tend to become standardized; project information is often collected centrally and projects tend to be approved and overseen by a designated governance body. |
50 – 69 / 100 |
| 3.Evolutionary |
The organization has the capacity to successfully deliver projects to achieve evolving strategic objectives. At this class, organizations will have integrated multi-project planning and control, where projects are managed as investment programs where appropriate, to improve project selection, resource allocation and project timing. Project-related processes are to be integrated with corporate processes and structures, project performance analysis is advanced enough to provide input to process improvement and project planning, and standard governance structures are in place for project approval and oversight. |
70 – 90 / 100 |
| 4. Transformational |
The organization has the capacity to successfully deliver projects to change the way the organization does business. At this class, projects are selected and overseen based on contribution to the strategic plan. Project approval, timing and resource allocation decisions are continually re-assessed to ensure optimal use of resources. Project management practices are continuously improved based on measurement of key performance indicators of compliance and project success. Project and portfolio management information systems are used to share information between project teams and between projects and management. The organization is “projectized” structurally and culturally to optimize the success of strategic projects. |
>90 / 100 |
Footnotes
4 Project Management Body of Knowledge, third edition, Project Management Institute, 2004
5 The Standard for Program Management, second edition, Project Management Institute, 2008
6 The Standard for Portfolio Management, second edition, Project Management Institute, 2008.
7 Organizational Project Management Maturity Model (OPM3) Knowledge Foundation, Project Management Institute, 2005
8 Ibid.
9 Ibid.
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