What is P3O?

P3O stands for Portfolio, Programme and / or Project Office. It is a framework put together by the Office of Government Commerce (OGC) and supported by the APM Group (APMG) and publishers TSO. The intention behind it was to address the problem of a total lack of industry best practice benchmarks for the promotion, set-up and execution of Project /Programme and Portfolio Management Offices.

These offices are all forms of ‘transparency hub’ and, when implemented correctly, act as the nerve centre necessary for the successful delivery of any programme or portfolio of projects and programmes. OGC’s PRINCE2, Managing Successful Programmes (MSP), and Management of Risk (MoR) all touch on the need to set-up Project / Programme and Portfolio Management Offices for the successful implementation of these best practices. The new P3O guidance is aligned fully to OGC’s PRINCE2, MSP, and MoR products, and brings together in one place a set of principles, processes and techniques to facilitate effective portfolio, programme and project management through the use of Project /Programme and Portfolio Management Offices . These offices also facilitate the bridging of the gap between strategy / policy makers and the delivery arms of an organisation.

P3O aims to provide universally applicable guidance that will enable individuals and organisations to better achieve the following:

• Informed senior management decision making on strategic alignment, prioritisation, risk management, optimisation of resource 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 enable benefits within time, cost and quality restraints

The P30 manual provides:

• An Introduction to P3Os – Discussing why, when and how to use P3O models including the difference between portfolio, programmes and project environments and their different requirements
• Value – What value P3Os can bring to the organisation including a business case, funding models and performance measures
• Model – An overview of the different P3O models with examples
• Functions and Techniques – Details on the functions/services and techniques/tools used by units of a P3O model

If you want to maximise your chances of programme or portfolio success I could not recommend strongly enough that you qualify as a P3O practitioner.