The Standard for Organizational Project Management (OPM)

PMI’s latest foundational standard, The Standard for Organizational Project Management (OPM), expands upon the popular Implementing Organizational Project Management: A Practice Guide, published in 2014. This newly-created standard is a result of survey feedback that revealed acceptance of the approach and increasing interest in an expanded version.

OPM is defined as the integration of people, knowledge, and processes, supported by tools across all functional domains of the organization.

The approach further advances an organization’s performance by developing and linking portfolio, program, and project management principles and practices with organizational enablers (e.g., structural, cultural, technological, and human resource practices) and business processes to support strategic objectives.

OPM helps organizations deliver value through the following principles:

• Aligning strategy
• Consistent execution and delivery
• Cross-functional collaboration
• Adding value to the organization
• Continuous training

Although useful for any organization that is seeking to better meet its strategic objectives, this standard is particularly beneficial for organizations that do not have a unified project management approach.