P3O

P3O Foundation

What is P3O?

A Portfolio, Programme and Project Offices model provides a decision enabling/delivery support structure for all change within an organisation.  This may be provided through a single permanent office which may exist under several different names e.g. Portfolio Office, Centre of Excellence, Enterprise or Corporate Programme Office.  It may otherwise be provided through a linked set of offices (portfolio office, programme offices, project offices), both permanent (enabling/supporting business objectives and consistency of delivery) and temporary (enabling/supporting specific programmes and projects), providing a mix of central and localised services.

OGC's PRINCE2, Managing Successful Programmes and Management of Risk all touch on the need to provide adequate support structures for these best practices.  However, currently there is no single source of this information that either organisations or individuals can go to find guidance or advice on setting up or running an effective delivery support office in alignment with OGC's Best Practice guidance. This new guidance - alligned to OGC's PRINCE2, MSP and MoR - will bring together in one place a set of principles, processes and techniques to facilitate effective portfolio, programme and project management through enablement, challenge and support structures.  These structures also bridge the gap between the strategy/policy makers and the delivery arm of the organisation.

The purpose of the Portfolio, Programme and Project Offices (P3O) guidance is to provide universally applicable guidance that will enable individuals and organisations to successfully establish, develop and maintain appropriate business support structures that will allow:

• Informed senior management decision making on strategic alignment, prioritisation, risk management, optimisation of resources etc to successfully deliver their business objectives (portfolio management).
• Identification and realisation of business outcomes and benefits via programmes.
• Successful delivery of project outputs that enables benefits within time, cost and quality restraints.

The course covers:

The Principles, Processes, Tools and Techniques, as well as the implementation/operational advice described in the P3O guide.

Practical work to bring the model to life

P3O Foundation examination