2008 International Conference on Information Management, Innovation Management and Industrial Engineering

Application of Organizational Project Management Maturity Model (OPM3)

to Construction in China: An Empirical Study

Jia Guangshe1, Cao Li2, Chen Jianguo3, Zhou Shuisen4 , Wang Jin5
Schools of Economics and Management in Tongji University 123，Shanghai Airport Authority4，
University of Reading5
jiagsh803@yahoo.com.cn1, clhcd@163.com2

Abstract theoretical research over project management and the

Construction plays a major role in both economic
and social development. However, one major problem
in the construction industry is its high investment and
large scale which is in sharp contrast with the low
benefit and inferior management. As a result, project
managers are seeking ways to improve the
organizational management level in order to
implement and control the construction projects
efficiently. This paper analyses the feasibility and
limitation of the Organizational Project Management
Maturity Model (OPM3) applied to large construction
projects in China. The study includes an investigation
into the maturity level concerning Shanghai Pudong
International Airport construction project. The results
show that OPM3 evaluates the maturity level and also
proposes some key points to improve the management
level. Therefore, the conclusion is that OPM3 can be
applied to project management in China, but not
directly; some prerequisites including OPM3 guidance
culture, model training and project management
planning are expected to be realized first.
1. Introduction
There is a huge demand for effective project
management in China with the rapid economic growth.
A large numbers of complex and systematic projects
are being established each year. The National Bureau
of Statistics (NBS) of China announces that the
investment in fixed assets for 2007 was up to 13723.9
billion Yuan, an increase of 24.8% over the figure of
the previous year speeding up by 0.9% [1]. However,
the construction efficiency remains low, like high
consumption of resources for construction projects and
low labor productivity.
So there is an urgent demand for enhanced
management capability and level. So far, remarkable
efforts have been made in both the depth of the
scope of integration of theory with practice after
decades of exploration and construction growth in
China. Nevertheless, there are still many problems on
the local market as China is just starting to integrate
project management techniques into construction.
Firstly, large-scale construction projects in China shall
be standardized. Secondly, large-scale construction
projects in China need governance. Thirdly, large-scale
construction projects in China need adequate project
management experience. A project is a temporary
endeavor undertaken to create a unique product,
service, or result (PMBOK Guide, 2004) [2], so the
intact project management record can be used as a
mirror in other projects or in theoretical research on
project management.
This paper firstly gives an introduction to the basic
constituents and architecture of different kinds of
maturity models so that readers can get a clear idea
about the excellence of OPM3. Then through
application of OPM3 to Shanghai Airport Authority in
China, the feasibility and problems relating to the
implementation of advanced foreign project
management maturity models in China are evaluated.
Finally, suggestions are given on how to devise a
model suited to large-scale construction projects with
Chinese characteristics.
2. The Comparison of Maturity Models
2.1. Maturity Model Domain Comparison
Capability Maturity Model for software (CMM) [3]
and Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI)
are representatives of process maturity models, which
emphasize key processes of software engineering,
system engineering and integrated products etc. PMS-
PMMM and OGC-P2MM [4] are representatives of
project maturity models, which emphasize nine project
management knowledge areas and total project life

978-0-7695-3435-0/08 $25.00 © 2008 IEEE 56

DOI 10.1109/ICIII.2008.182
cycle. Organizational Project Management Maturity
Model (OPM3) [5]and OGC-P3M3 are representatives
of organizational project management maturity models
from an organizational strategic perspective, which
Table 1. Maturity Model Domain Comparison
Domain Representative
process maturity CMM and CMMI
project maturity PMS-PMMM and project management, nine knowledge areas and total
OGC-P2MM
organizational project OPM3 and OGC- project, program and portfolio management
management maturity P3M3
2.2. Maturity Model Structure System
Comparison
CMM, as the first maturity model, can be regarded
as a one-dimensional framework. The model defines
five maturity development levels including Initial,
Repeatable, Defined, Managed and Optimizing to
assess the maturity of software processes.
Most maturity models are two-dimensional which
keep in closer relationship with project management
than CMM. PMS-PMMM is a matrix model. The first
dimension reflects five maturity levels based on the
SEI CMM. The second dimension depicts the key
areas of project management concerned and adopts the
structure of nine PMI knowledge areas.
OPM3 differs from other models in that it is three-
dimensional, so it is possible to determine the maturity
of an organization from different perspectives in
different ways on the basis of OPM3. The first
dimension is about viewing Best Practices through the
progression of process improvement stages—from
Standardize, Measure and Control to continuous
Improvement. Another dimension is associated with
the progression of Best Practices falling into three
domains: Project Management, Program Management
and ultimately, Portfolio Management. In addition to
these two dimensions described, OPM3 also
incorporates five Project Management Process Groups
(Initiating, Planning, Executing Controlling and
Closing) into its maturity model, and identifies
Capabilities and Best Practices in term of their
association with the five processes.
In a word, superior to any other management
maturity model, OPM3 gives consideration to project
management, program management and portfolio
management, focuses on the continuous improvement
of organizational project management, and creatively
develops continuous structure by means of logic
relevance. In addition, compared with CMM, PMS-
PMMM and P3M3 (P2MM), OPM3 enjoys some
advanced features, as shown in Table2. The
cover research targets from project management to
program management and portfolio management on
the basis of the models, as shown in Table1.
Focus
key processes of software engineering, system
engineering and integrated product etc.
project life cycle
investigation target of this paper is Shanghai Pudong
International Airport Construction Project and its
management organizations, including Flight, Terminal,
Aviation Control, Oil Supply and Supporting Facilities
which combine to form a project system. Therefore, to
assess the maturity degree of an organization, OPM3 is
preferable.
3. The Investigation
A Questionnaire was formulated and distributed to
professionals who offer design/building services and to
owners who employ these professionals and advertise
design/building projects regularly.
3.1. Interviewees
The target investigation organization is Shanghai
Airport Authority which has undertaken the entire
design, construction and operation of both Terminal 1
and Terminal 2 of Pudong International Airport. The
organization was established by the Municipal
Government of Shanghai in charge of the construction
and utilization of Pudong International Airport. It is a
typical large state-owned enterprise enjoying
tremendous financial and human resources and belongs
to the government body. Comprising many functional
departments, the organization has a very complicated
hierarchy, as shown in Figure1.
Such organizations were initially established to
accomplish mega-sized projects across the country.
Affiliated to the government, Shanghai Airport
Authority is under the governmental regulation and
guidance. Meanwhile, it is also an independent
enterprise competing with other enterprises on the
domestic market. Thus such organization falls into a
typical group with distinctive government-based
features in China.
A total of eight departments of the organization got
involved in the survey. They are the Department of
Engineering, the Department of Planning and
Designing, the Department of Finance, the Department
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of Information, the Terminal Department, the Flight leaders of respective department. Their service time in
Department, the Auxiliary Facilities Department and project management averages fourteen years, the
the Comprehensive Department. The interviewees longest thirty-five years and the shortest six years.
selected are all middle-level managers who are also
Table 2. Comparison of CMM, PMS-PMMM and P3M3 (P2MM) with OPM3
CMM PMS-PMMM P3M3(P2MM) OPM3
Model One-dimensional Matrix Matrix Three dimensional: three
Dimensional domains, five processes
and four stages
Feature Stage model, no Stage model Stage model which Continuous model which
existing logic can not provide a develops a roadmap from
relation between specific improvement low level to high level
different path management maturity.
maturity levels.
Focus Areas Software Project Organizational SMCI BP and OE
management management culture and (structural, cultural,
process nine knowledge knowledge technological and human-
areas management besides resource) BP
project management
process
Assessment Software process Software process Maturity model Knowledge, Assessment
System maturity maturity evaluation handbook, and Improvement in a
evaluation method, capability assessment closed circulation
method, maturity key questioning list,
capability practice and omitting maturity
maturity key software process model introduction
practice and maturity
software process questioning list
maturity
questioning list

3.2. Four Stages of Investigation 3.2.2. Questionnaires & Face-to-face Interviews. A

3.2.1 Pilot Study. The OPM3 Self-Assessment
Questionnaires were distributed to selected
organizations in a limited number to see whether it was
suitable to put OPM3 directly into practice. This
investigation was regarded as a pilot study of the
questionnaire to see whether any further adjustment or
modification was needed to make it more
understandable and suitable to the local environment
before distribution to senior managements and
interviews.
methodology combining the questionnaire survey with
face-to-face interviews of senior managers was
adopted to clarify the inherent meaning of each
question. In so doing, both the author and the
organization concerned could achieve a common
understanding to some extent so that the assessment
could reflect the status of project management maturity
of the organization as authentic as possible. The
common understanding may concern the following two
aspects:

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 The airport headquarters

Financial Planning Equipment General Human MIS Security Aviation General

engineer resource guard operation office

Aviation

Terminal

Matching

Freight

Logistic

Oil
divisional

Figure 1. Organizational Structure of Shanghai Airport Authority

(1) The organization shall have a basic strategy with the project execution, the OPM3 covers
understanding of OPM3. This involves preparation for the whole areas of project management across the
the assessment of the organizational project organization. It is better for the senior managers to
management maturity in relation to the OPM3, answer the Self-Assessment questions from the
understanding of the OPM3 as thoroughly as possible, strategic perspective of the organization in order to
familiarity with the assessment of the OPM3, obtain a clear picture of the general performance of the
assimilation of the materials presented and organization.
determination of the best way to apply the OPM3
within the organization. 3.2.4. Feedback of assessment results to the
(2) The assessor shall know about the organization. organization. Finally, the assessment result shall be
It is very important to understand all aspects of the fed back to the organization, to be compared with the
organization before the assessment, so as to ensure a actual operational status of the organization to see
smooth progression. In addition, a clear understanding whether the OPM3 is applicable. If the result could not
of the actual organizational structure with comparison reflect the general project management status of the
to Project, Program, and Portfolio Management organization objectively or thoroughly, it is necessary
Domains is helpful for a more practical assessment. In to find out the reason.
line with the OPM3, the assessor shall also understand
the processes, sequences and hierarchies employed by 4. Survey Data and Discussion of Results
the organization concerned. On this basis, the
questionnaire can be altered to be more practical and 4.1. Response Analysis
easier to understand. With the progression of the
activity, a relatively realistic questionnaire can be This survey over the organization requires
developed. considerably more time than originally planned. The
main reason is that the staff of the organization did not
3.2.3. In-depth Interview with the Head. Then a see the true value of this research, or they were
detailed interview with the head of the organization reluctant to share the details of their project
shall be carried out in combination with data analysis if management practices.
possible. Since maturity improvement activities were There are 15 questionnaire papers, nine papers were
organization-wide, activities shall be carefully selected returned. In the investigation, the authors found that
and planned, to reflect the strategies or prioritized the respondents answered the questions basically from
interests of the organization. It is very important that the perspective of their own departments due to the
the high-level executives especially the Chief bureaucratic structure of the organization. The project
Executives of the Organization get involved in the management procedure is essentially that the
assessment so that decisions can be made for further organization divides the project or program into
improvement. Designed to link the organizational several parts and distributes them to functional

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departments from the inception to the end of the management, 52%, 33%, 20% and 13% in SMCI levels
project or program, for example, the Department of of portfolio management. As the department manager
Engineering is in charge of the construction at the said, the Information Department has developed a
construction phase; the Department of Planning and relatively perfect standard project management system,
Designing exercises supervision over the design measurement method and control means to improve
quality and coordinates with the construction. the management performance, especially in risk
management, contract management and information
4.2. Analysis of Maturity Degree of Shanghai system where high levels of maturity have been
Airport Authority achieved.
On the other hand, the assessment points of the
Through application of the OPM3 to Shanghai Planning and Designing Department and the Financial
Airport Authority, Table 3 shows the assessment result Department are relatively low. The Planning and
of each department in SMCI levels of three Designing Department reaches only up to 45%, 39%
management domains by percentage. Table 4 shows 30% and 26% in SMCI levels of project management,
the maturity degree of Shanghai Airport Authority by 43%, 38%, 30% and 24% in SMCI levels of program
mean value. Among all departments, the Information management, 39%, 31%, 15% and 6% in SMCI levels
Department ranks the highest, up to 96%, 90%, 87% of portfolio management. The two departments focus
and 84% in SMCI levels of project management, 93%, on the construction prophase which is prerequisite to
88%, 85% and 80% in SMCI levels of program
Table 3. Maturity Level in SMCI Level of Three Domains
Project Maturity Degree（%）
Name
Level Standard Measure Control Improve
Project 64 47 40 30
Headquarters Program 57 46 39 28
Portfolio 50 34 17 8
Planning and Project 45 39 30 26
Designing Program 43 38 30 24
Department Portfolio 39 31 15 6
Project 50 44 40 32
Financial
Program 47 43 36 28
Department
Portfolio 45 30 21 10
Project 96 90 87 84
Information
Program 93 88 85 80
Department
Portfolio 52 33 20 13
Project 68 56 48 40
Terminal
Program 65 55 48 37
Department
Portfolio 47 32 17 7
Project 70 61 54 48
Flight
Program 70 58 53 46
Department
Portfolio 33 25 13 5
Project 79 70 62 48
Auxiliary
Program 74 68 59 44
Department
Portfolio 29 22 11 5
Project 82 77 73 67
Comprehensive
Program 80 68 62 54
Department
Portfolio 44 32 17 9
Table 4. Maturity Degree of Shanghai Airport Authority
Maturity Degree（%）
Domain
Standard(S) Measure(M) Control(C) Improve(I)
Project 69.25 60.5 54.25 46.875
Program 66.125 58 50.5 42.465
Portfolio 42.375 29.625 16.625 7.785

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the attainment of the general construction objective of
project planning and designing, procurement and
government approval. The department manager said,
without any standard method or regulation, the
management is based upon the work experience and
leadership decision alone, so the management
effectiveness remains low. Another reason may be: due
to lack of information communication, the objectives
of the organization cannot be understood in time.
5. The Implications of Findings
Based on the analysis of the investigation result, it
could be concluded that the result mirrors the strengths
and weaknesses of the organization to some extent, for
example, the organization has not effectively integrated
the project management body of knowledge into the
project management, the organization has not used any
necessary tool or method to optimize resources, but
following the leadership decision only, and no standard
method has been adopted to define, collect and analyze
the project data; and the organization has not
developed a formal evaluation system to evaluate the
actual performance etc. However, it is still not
appropriate to directly apply the OPM3 to the
organizations associated with Shanghai International
Airport construction project. Some points could be
summarized as follows:
5.1. Understanding the Model
The lack of knowledge about the Knowledge
Foundation and organizational project management is a
barrier to the understanding of benefits of the model.
Also, some understanding about the concept and
practice of Project, Program and Portfolio
Management is required, while this is a subject where
there is very little exposure in the organization. Since
the model depends on the conceptual understanding of
the OPM3, substantial time and effort has to be spent
in educating prospective users of the OPM3.
The OPM3 is intended to be only a tool to get a
rough idea about the maturity. However, the
prospective users assume the result of Self Assessment
to be final in terms of the maturity level in actual
practice. Many have not realized that this is the only
first cut and they need to conduct further analysis for
the final assessment.
5.2. Designing the Questionnaire
The questions are too technical to answer, and all
the questions have to be answered by saying “Yes” or
“No” according to the OPM3. However, since some
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questions cover certain areas of project management,
the actual project performance cannot be reflected by
simply answering “Yes” or “No”. Therefore, there
shall be measurable criteria for respondents to answer
the questions and quantitative metric techniques also
need to be adopted in terms of rating, quantifying, or
multiple choices etc. For instance, Question 16 is
related to 11 Best Practices, so if the answer is “Yes”,
all the 11 Best practices are treated as achievement of
the organization and vice versa, but this does not tell
the reality of the organization.
5.3. Approved Benchmark
Since the OPM3 was introduced only a short time
ago, the database of model application cases has yet to
be created, while most new users would like to have a
reference list of previous users especially feedback
from China before trying the model. There will be
better acceptance if sufficient data is available on
benchmark in similar industries or across sectors.
5.4. The model can not be directly applied to
construction projects in China
The OPM3 is said to be applicable to any
organization regardless of the size, geography or
industry. However, challenges and obstacles arise
when it is applied to Shanghai International Airport
construction project in China, probably because it is
close to the specific Chinese institution under the
traditional administrative intervention where leaders
are regarded as absolute authorities. There are also
influences from the domestic market, such as the
imperfect performance appraisal procedure,
responsibility mechanism, supervision mechanism,
appeal mechanism and result application mechanism as
well as influences of the traditional Chinese culture.
6. Conclusion
This study reports the results of the author’s
investigation into the value of OPM3 in China. As the
construction industry becomes booming in China,
organizations need a standard project management tool
to translate their organizational strategies into
workable components. The OPM3 enables
organizations to enhance their capability of project
management, complete the project successfully
through the OPM3 Assessment and provide
improvement plans. This study shows that we have
begun to understand and develop the theory of project
management maturity models in China, yet many gaps
remain in our knowledge base.
 On one hand, if OPM3 could be successfully
applied, the project management organization in China
shall do as follows:
Develop OPM3 guidance system and culture:
OPM3 is a relatively new theory with few applications
in China and it is not easy to accept the OPM3
requirements for the project management, so the
organization shall develop the capability of
implementing and assimilating the internal changes
required for the maturity improvements. The
organization shall fully integrate the OPM3 into their
project management culture to make it an essential
element so as to lay the groundwork for ongoing
improvements.
Provide model training: OPM3 consists of many
terms such as Best Practices, Capabilities, Outcomes
and KPI etc., so the organization shall provide model
training for senior project managers and give advice in
the whole application process to ensure the senior
managers could understand the OPM3 and ultimately
grasp the essentials.
Develop the project management plan: the purpose
of the OPM3 is to ensure an organization can
continuously improve the management maturity level
to achieve top strategic goals, so the organization shall
firstly develop systematic ways of thinking to outline
the project management and plan the management
objectives, processes and relevant factors, i.e., standard
processes and methods, in order to make the strategic
goals more attainable.
On the other, the organization shall comply with
necessary principles before applying the OPM3:
Firstly, evaluating and improving the organizational
project management is a gradual process, so the
organization shall have the patience and persistence in
this process. Secondly, in the application of the OPM3,
the actual status of the organization shall be considered
while the model cannot be applied mechanically.
Lastly, the application is, in essence, a continuous
improvement process, with different Best Practices,
Capabilities and KPI etc. at different maturity level, so
the organization shall identify these differences based
upon the continuous accumulation of management
expertise.
This work is supported by National Natural Science
Foundation of China (project NO.70472062) and
Project Management Institute (PMI).
References
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[2]Project Management Institute (PMI). A Guide to the
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[3]Carnegie Mellon University. Capability Maturity Model.
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[4]Guide to PRINCE2 Maturity Model. Retrieved: From
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[5]Project Management Institute (PMI). Organizational
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[6]Project Management Institute. Project Management
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Acknowledgements
The acknowledgements first go to Shanghai Airport
Authority for the support of our investigation and
study. Our acknowledgements also go to all those
designers and construction professionals who took time
out of their busy schedule to respond to our survey.

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