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Contents
Overview .......................................................................................................................3
Why Have a P3O®?.......................................................................................................10
Case Study: P3O® Pilot .................................................................................................19
Designing a P3O® Model..............................................................................................20
Implement and Re‐energise.........................................................................................44
Case Study: No Skeletons in the Cupboard at BT Design ............................................59
How to Operate a P3O® ...............................................................................................60
Roles.............................................................................................................................72
Case Study: Skipton Building Society ...........................................................................89
Glossary of Terms and Definitions ...............................................................................96
Overview
Definitions
P3M
Portfolio, Programme, and Project Management (also including value and risk
management).
Portfolio
The totality of an organisation’s investment (or segment thereof) in the changes
required to achieve its strategic objectives.
Programme
A temporary, flexible organisational structure created to coordinate, direct, and oversee
the implementation of a set of related projects and activities to deliver outcomes and
benefits related to the organisation’s strategic objectives.
Project
A temporary organisation, created for the purpose of delivering one or more business
products to an agreed business case.
Portfolio Management
A coordinated collection of strategic processes and decisions that enable the most
effective balance of organisational change and business as usual.
Project Management
The planning, delegating, monitoring, and control of all aspects of the project, and the
motivation involved, achieve the project objectives within the expected performance
targets for time, cost, quality, scope, benefits, and risk.
What is a P3O®?
A decision‐enabling and support business model for all business change within an
organisation.
This includes single or virtual structures, i.e. offices (permanent and/or temporary),
providing a mix of central and localised functions and services, and integration with
governance arrangement and the wider business such as other corporate support
functions.
The elements that make up P3O®:
Organisation Portfolio Office
Hub Portfolio Office
Programme Office
Project Office
Centre of Excellence
An example of a P3O® Model
Based on AXELOS P3O® material. Reproduced under licence from AXELO S Limited. All rights reserved.
Fill in the blanks regarding the differences between portfolio, programme, and project
management
1. ______management is just the management of an individual, standalone project.
2. A project is usually part of a_________, but a ________cannot be part of a
project.
3. Programme management is the management of several_________, directly
addressing how they are managing themselves.
4. __________deliver strategies, whereas projects will be strategy‐driven.
5. __________are made up of programmes.
6. Portfolio management determines the priorities of _____________.
Business as Usual
The way a business normally achieves its objectives.
‘Run the business, Change the business’
Based on AXELOS P3O®material. Reproduced under licence from AXELOS Limited. All rights reserved.
Organisational Context
An effective P3O® can increase an organisation’s chance of successfully delivering on its
strategic objectives by maximising benefits realised from its continued investment in
business change programmes and projects.
It maintains a ‘big picture’ understanding of the business change portfolio
Provides decision support to ensure the right programmes and projects are
launched
Provides standards and processes to ensure a consistent delivery
Delivers an independent oversight, scrutiny, and challenge, to ensure things are
done correctly
Assistance in the building of a competent workforce capable of first‐class
programme and project delivery
Improving upon organisational accountability, decision‐making, transparency,
and visibility
Protecting revenue and spend
Executing change more effectively and efficiently to improve programme and
project delivery
Defending reputation and stakeholder confidence
Without the involvement of an effective P3O® model, organisational strategic
objectives may still be reached, but potentially in a fragmented or unstructured way.
This, therefore, could have an adverse effect on expected outcomes and generate a
significant threat to any already scarce resources.
P3O® Model elements aligned with portfolio, programme, and project lifecycles
Based on AXELOS P3O® material. Reproduced under licence from AXELOS Limited. Al l rights reserved.
Structures of Portfolio
There are five types of ‘models’ in P3O® that describe the way, in both structure and
nature, how offices and their functions can be organised.
2. What is a portfolio?
A decision‐enabling and support business model for all business change within
an organisation
A temporary organisation that is created for the purpose of delivering one or
more business products to an agreed business case
The totality of an organisation’s investment (or segment thereof) in the
changes required to achieve its strategic objectives
A coordinated collection of strategic processes and decisions that, together,
enable the most effective balance of organisational change and business as
usual
The P3O® can add real value to any senior management decision‐making and
governance capability if it:
is an appropriate model for the organisation
is adequately resourced
interfaces with decision‐making bodies
has services aligned with other service providers within the organisation, such as
finance, procurement, or audit
Best Management Principles for extracting value from programme and project
investment:
Govern effectively – How P3O®s can help
Providing support to Senior Responsible Owner and Senior Management
Ensuring risks, issues, and changes are escalated to the right decision‐making
authority
Making sure complete, timely, and accurate data is collected at source so that
analysis and amalgamation enables quality decision‐making
Hold people to account – How P3O®s can help
Providing the Senior Responsible Owner and Senior Managers with decision‐
making support
Ensuring that the right decisions are escalated to the right people, with relevant
information to support the decision‐making process
Providing standard role descriptions and terms of reference for the boards
Providing support, coaching, and training for all roles available
Prioritise investment, align and adjust to business strategy – How P3O®s can help
Maintaining a register of all programmes and projects within the portfolio,
including any ideas in the pipeline
Facilitate and support pre‐programme and project scoping workshops
Support risk identification workshops
Providing a fast‐track mobilisation service to programmes and projects
Supporting feedback from programmes and projects to strategy
Safeguard value – How P3O®s can help
Supporting the business‐case process
Providing a benefits tracking service to business owners
Ensuring benefits are not double‐counted and that the measurement process is
robust and usable
Helping to get more value via benefits from investment across programmes and
projects
Invest in people and process – How P3O®s can help
Developing tailored approaches based on Best Management Practice approaches
and ensuring that they are easily accessible to everybody in the PPM community
Developing training, coaching, and mentoring approaches for all roles within the
PPM environment
Advising on skills and capability assessments
Track progress through highlight and exception‐based reporting – How P3O®s can help
Providing timely reporting and exception management service from project to
portfolio level
Developing management dashboards that engage and focus senior management
on the key risks and matters that affect the delivery of the portfolio
Making sure that the data collection process operates proficiently and effectively
Exercise
List as many benefits for a P3O® as you can.
Where this occurs, the ideal scenario would be a merging of the two offices under a
single director. If this is not a viable option, though, then the two offices should work
closely with each other.
Underlying Success Factors for Models with an Organisation Portfolio Office,
Advantages and Consequences
A P3O® champion representing senior management continuity of support
Allows for decision‐making at senior levels and drives action through other
management teams
However, the P3O® is not recognised, processes are not used, and processes are
not embedded in the culture and the initial rollout effort is wasted
Clarity of strategy and direction for management of change
Gives direction for prioritisation and capacity planning
However, the organisation does not have a portfolio of programmes and projects
aligned to the organisation’s goals, and too many programmes or projects are
started that do not add real value to the organisation
A highly respected, charismatic, and comfortable head of P3O®
Gives the P3O® units gravitas across the organisation, and the head of P3O® is
invited to senior planning meetings so they can influence decisions
However, P3O® requirements are not considered when key restructuring
decisions are made, and rolling out standards and methods across an
organisation is difficult
A portfolio office that is staffed with highly competent senior staff
The ability to empathise with delivery programmes and projects, knowledge of
what works and what does not, and getting the respect of others is easy
However, P3O® can be seen as just an admin office, or a ‘post box’
An established programme/project management forum/community of practice (COP)
Lessons are shared ‘in context’ – of how enterprise standards translate into
reality, the organisation portfolio office can learn directly from programme and
project managers, and any changes in industry practices can be communicated
easily to the full PPM community
However, there is a potential for local programme offices to form cliques, with no
sense of corporate identity, and there is no face‐to‐face forum to discuss and
debate issues and updates to organisational best practice
A blueprint for the P3O® that is regularly reviewed and updated in line with
improvements
Allows for a structure and focus for P3O® development and delivery, and utilised
to focus senior management’s attention on the added value of the P3O® and
challenge attempts at cost‐cutting
However, the purpose and services of the P3O® model are vulnerable to constant
change as senior managers champion changes over time, and personal visions
intervene
An intranet or collaboration zone where all PPM staff can access best practice and
standards
A single source of access for standards that are periodically updated, and
lessons/emerging industry good practice can be centrally applied and easily
accessed by all
However, local standards evolve and develop constantly, and individuals will save
templates on local drives and do not keep up with changing best practice
A P3O® champion representing senior management continuity of support
Clarity of strategy and direction Gives the P3O® units gravitas across
for management of change the organisation, and the head of
P3O® is invited to senior planning
meetings so they can influence
decisions
Exercise
Match‐up the relevant advantages with each underlying success factor.
Gives direction for prioritisation and capacity planning
P3O® model with hub portfolio offices connected by spokes
A P3O® model with hub portfolio offices will have a permanent central organisation
portfolio office that is connected to a number of permanent decentralised offices.
These offices then act as hub portfolio offices to the temporary programmes and
projects that they service.
This model is often referred to as a hub‐and‐spoke model, providing the benefit of
scalability for large organisations and supports business ownership by maintaining a
level of decentralisation.
All information flows, and processes arranged, so that they move along spokes to the
organisation‐level office at the centre.
The figure illustrated below depicts a permanent central organisation portfolio office
with hub portfolio offices.
This model is often the choice for large, more complex organisations, possibly with a
multi‐ national reach. A geographical spread of sites may necessitate the setting up of
separate portfolio offices.
Programmes and projects will use the standards and assurances from the corporate
COE or the local hub portfolio office, depending on the size and maturity of the
organisation.
Underlying success factors for hub portfolio offices
An effective capacity planning and flexible resourcing model
Allows for the geographic clustering of resources, and resources will be familiar
with the local business model and working practices
However, resources continue to be bought in, or asked to travel over a large
geographical area
Availability of good heads of portfolio offices using core standards and methods
Provides a flow‐down of good practice and standards with localised tailoring and
application
However, the local hub portfolio offices develop their own standards and do not
share best practice, and the transfer of staff across portfolio offices requires
constant training
An established head of portfolio/programme offices forum
Consistency of application of enterprise or corporate best practice, and learning
from each other how best to apply enterprise or corporate standards
However, the local hub portfolio offices develop their own standards and do not
share best practice, and the transfer of staff across portfolio offices requires
constant training
Virtual P3O® Model
The ultimate decentralised model is the virtual P3O® model, where there is no
permanent office.
Any functions and services are embedded in the organisation’s business delivery units,
with activities undertaken by a central strategy or business‐planning office or the
finance department.
This model typically exists in organisations with a high‐level of PPM maturity, where
consistent standards are embedded, the PPM resources are highly competent, and
P3O® functions and services can be provided across the organisation without the need
for a physical structure.
A significant aspect of this model is the programme, risk, and project management
forums/communities of practice.
All PPM professionals come together at regular events to share best practice and learn
about any new methods of working.
It is a common place for a virtual P3O® to be developed using external resources and
internal collaboration tools.
This allows a more community‐based connection, with a similar core team. In terms of
cost‐reduction, this could be valuable for an organisation to explore further as its PPM
maturity rises.
Underlying success factors in the virtual office model
The organisation has a P3M3 maturity level of three or above
Allows for consistent, reliable working practices, as well as a culture of review
and continual improvement
However, there is no consistent way of working and there is the potential that
multiple methods will progress across the organisation
Established programme/project management forums
The sharing of best practice and a collaborative approach to the updating and
embedding of these practices
However, the base standards and practices can stagnate, and any updates
without consultation are seen as an imposition and consistency of approach
disappears over time
A single point of ownership by a senior PPM professional for portfolio, programme,
and project standards
The senior professional is outward‐facing to look for and contemplate advances
in best practice
However, local variations sneak in and the earlier work is undone
Standards are continually developed and embedded through reference to external
best practice
Provides a single point of reference for virtual teams to access, which is updated
regularly
However, local variations sneak in and the earlier work is undone
A strong, underlying PPM culture
Those involved in delivering change (mainly the senior board members)
understand their roles and the benefits of a consistent approach
However, programmes and projects act individually and do not deliver consistent
working practices, and the training overhead for programme and project
managers to bring boards and business resources up to date is excessive
Exercise
Match‐up the relevant advantages with each underlying success factor.
The organisation has a P3M3 The senior professional is outwardfacing
to look for and contemplate
maturity level of three or above advances in best practice
The P3O® model provides the governance backbone for all change within an
organisation, certifying that all decisions are made at the appropriate level and in a
timely manner.
Effective collaboration with all bodies across the organisation is necessary due to the
influence on decision‐making.
This relationship needs to be clearly defined and rules of engagement recognised as
well.
Governance must be agreed and defined in terms of:
Programme office 3 4 7 9 12 17 25
Identify
This process assesses the current state of P3O® provision and identifies the key
stakeholders. Outline documentation for the P3O® model is created at this point,
including a summary document called a Brief, which require validation by
management.
Activities also include:
Agreeing the P3O® Vision
Demonstrating the Value
Agreeing the appropriate cost model
Identifying stakeholders
The portfolio, programmes, and projects cannot be considered successful without the
stakeholders being satisfied. One can recognise the stakeholders from the information
about the budget, project sponsor, objects, schedule, assumptions and constraints, and
Top Management. One can get a large amount of information about the stakeholders
by interviewing the experts, or through a brainstorming session. Good questions to
consider are:
Who has direct involvement in the projects and/or programmes?
Who has indirect involvement?
Who are the suppliers?
Who are the competitors?
Who can make your portfolio/programme/projects fail?
Who may be affected by the outcomes?
Assessing the current state
The main purpose here is to drive the right information from your analysis and
assessment. Impartial honesty is the best policy at this stage. You will need to gather
opinions from various stakeholders and pull together as much factual information
about the current portfolio, programmes, and projects you can find.
There are several forms of assessment, including:
P3M3 Maturity Assessment
PPM Maturity Model
Value Matrix
P3M3® Maturity Assessments
P3M3 Structure
Based on AXELOS P3O® material. Reproduced under licence from AXELOS Limited. All rights reserved.
The level of organisational maturity in portfolio delivery demonstrates how well the
organisation can support its programmes and projects. The P3M3® Maturity Model is a
specific management maturity model to assess organisational effectiveness. There are
seven perspectives taken into consideration:
Management Control
Benefits Management
Financial Management
Stakeholder Management
Risk Management
Organisational Governance
Resource Management
There are five levels of maturity:
0. Awareness
1. Repeatable
2. Defined
3. Managed
4. Optimised
A programme uses a P3M3® Model to:
Improve performance
Assess maturity of projects
Measure itself against one or more perspectives
Ensure it is working consistently across all projects
Overview of P3M3
Based on AXELOS P3O® material. Reproduced under licence from AXELOS Limited. All rights reserved.
Value Matrix
The P3O® Value Matrix is a simple tool to assist senior managers in determining their
core problems and assessing the scope of the P3O® model. In order to create a vision
of what the P3O® model should provide, we need to understand what is offered now
and how effective it is. Typical questions to ask during the data gathering are:
Define
This process establishes the team, refines the Vision Statement and the Blueprint. It
works on Stakeholder Engagement and delivers an implementation plan. This is all
summarised in a Programme Definition Document, which should be validated by
management. It also includes developing, modelling, and validating the benefits.
Refining the Vision Statement
The outlined vision statement needs to be developed and refined to include a high‐
level view of outcomes that will be achieved across process, organisational, technology,
and information areas once the P3O® implementation is completed. Its main purpose is
to market the goals of the programme across with wider organisation.
The Blueprint
Blueprints often use the POTI Model to define the scope of all changes taking place as a
result of the projects. POTI stands for Processes, Organisation, Technology, and
Information; the four areas that outline all elements compiling the P3O® scope.
Processes
Projects adapt current processes and implement new ones. Any operational business
models that will undergo change due to the projects in the programme and portfolio
come under this area. For example:
Performance levels
Functions and services
Use of pictures, process models, or swimlanes
Organisation
All personnel and HR organisation information, including any changes made,
requirements for the business, and organisational culture. For example:
Re‐arrangement of staff
Training requirements
Roles and responsibilities
Governance
Technology
All P3O® technology requirements are included in this section, including equipment,
tools, systems, and resources. For example:
Equipment needs
New networks or systems
Information
This area consists of mostly intangible data, such as new information requirements for
stakeholders. This may not be available early on in the blueprint development. For
example:
Changes to reporting systems and requirements
Project/Programme specific data outcomes
Information assurance
An important factor to consider when developing the blueprint is the type of P3O®
culture the organisation hopes to create. A culture is a pattern of responses
discovered, developed, or invented during a group’s history of handling problems that
arise. Culture determines what sort of actions and behaviour is acceptable, relevant,
workable, or implausible. Below are characteristics of a beneficial P3O® model:
Information Sharing: Describes the exchange of programme and project data to report
information, knowledge, and wisdom between roles, technologies, and the broader
organisation.
Focus on learning: P3O®s provide services to enable improvement, so rather than track
data looking for failure, they review and challenge documentation early on in the
process, in hope of increasing portfolio, programme, and project maturity.
Value focus to all activities: The aim here is to improve decision making and focus on
finding more attractive options rather than opting for any alternative. There is a P3O®
need for greater depth, a clear governance structure, and a sound conceptual basis for
relating strategic objectives to each investment.
Innovative: For P3O®s, innovation looks to implement new ideas, create dynamic
products, and improve services. The successful delivery of projects and programmes is
the measuring tool for innovation.
Service focussed: P3O®s place significant impact on customer service as a cornerstone
to realising financial and quantifiable benefits. As programmes rely more on
consultancy services, it is vital that P3O®s look to continually improve the services they
offer.
Proactive analysis: Instead of reacting to a situation post‐occurrence, P3O®s support
seeing potential problems before they occur through proactive analysis. Taking action
towards a risk as it happens, rather than after, leads to a reduced impact and cost
Threats to achieving the Blueprint
Lack of continued senior management commitment
Resistance to change
Overly focussed on toolsets, processes, and templates
Managing the implementation of P3O® as a project
Initial lack of quality of portfolio or programme information
The P3O® becomes the de‐facto of business change
Insufficient support to utilise or recruit required skills
Plan stages or tranches
Many P3O®s are closed down within a five‐year period, so it is important to clarify early
benefits to stakeholders for their investment. These can then be used to fund later
tranches, so that if the P3O® does last, it will finance itself.
The first tranche of delivery should contain early benefits that achieve
demonstrable improvements and easily implemented deliverables. A portfolio
register is useful at this stage, so stakeholders and management can see all the
strategies, benefits, and impacts of programmes and projects on the organisation
as a whole. This should include a defined investment budget and balanced set of
resources.
Aligning the development of P3O® capability with the normal organisation
business‐ planning cycle is also a good idea as it allows for integration of the
P3O® model and its benefits into the business budget lifecycle.
A projects dossier aims to improve PPM maturity within the organisation and the
figure below shows an outline plan based on the dossier.
When developing a projects dossier, it is important to consider:
Existing PPM maturity and targets
Priorities for capability development
Ability to embed change
Functions and services as a results of P3O® added value
Pace of change requirements
Resource capacity
Scale of portfolio
Risks to delivery and planned benefits
Threats to achieving the Blueprint
Lack of continued senior management commitment
Resistance to change
Overly focused on toolsets, processes, and templates
Managing the implementation of P3O® as a project
Initial lack of quality of portfolio or programme information
The P3O® becomes the de‐facto of business change
Insufficient support to utilise or recruit required skills
Plan stages or tranches
Many P3O®s are closed down within a five‐year period, so it is important to clarify early
benefits to stakeholders for their investment. These can then be used to fund later
tranches, so that if the P3O® does last, it will finance itself.
The first tranche of delivery should contain early benefits that achieve demonstrable
improvements and easily implemented deliverables. A portfolio register is useful at
this stage, so stakeholders and management can see all the strategies, benefits, and
impacts of programmes and projects on the organisation as a whole. This should
include a defined investment budget and balanced set of resources.
Aligning the development of P3O® capability with the normal organisation business
planning cycle is also a good idea as it allows for integration of the P3O® model and
its benefits into the business budget lifecycle.
A projects dossier aims to improve PPM maturity within the organisation and the
figure below shows an outline plan based on the dossier.
When developing a projects dossier, it is important to consider:
Existing PPM maturity and targets
Priorities for capability development
Ability to embed change
Functions and services as a results of P3O® added value
Pace of change requirements
Resource capacity
Scale of portfolio
Risks to delivery and planned benefits
Outline plan for a P3O® establishment and PPM maturity development programmer
Based on AXELOS P3O® material. Reproduced under licence from AXELOS Limited. All rights reserved.
Review the effectiveness of how benefits management has been handled, sharing
any learned lessons
Reviews will require the benefits realisation plan itself, as well as its benefits map and any
relevant individual benefit profiles. If any concerns arise, then the benefits management
strategy should be revisited.
Close
When a specific programme has been developed to set up a new P3O® capability, formal
closure and post‐implementation and benefit reviews are essential. This enables making
the P3O® capability part of ‘business‐as‐usual’ and allows time to reflect.
Exercise: Give some examples of the steps you would take in the Buyitall scenario that
would incorporate these characteristics within its P3O® model
Information Sharing
Focus on learning
Innovative
Service focused
Proactive analysis
Use pilot and early adopters and ensure all plans and successes are communicated
effectively to the PPM community
P3O® Tools
Examples of Tools
Strategic Mapping Software
EPM Solutions
Enterprise Architecture Systems
Knowledge Management Systems
Performance Management Systems
Risk Management Systems
Requirements Management Systems
Enterprise PPM (EPM) Solutions
These are the most common integrated tools used in the P3O® that aid in data collection,
maintenance, and reporting all in one solution. This enables a roll‐up of information from
one data source to all project/programme levels; they can produce integrated reports for
multiple audiences from a single set of data. A wide range of EPM solutions are available
but organisations have difficulty utilising them due to low PPM maturity – this emphasises
how PPM maturity is a vital consideration in tool selection.
Selecting and Implementing an EPM Solution
Key questions to consider when developing a requirements document for the selection and
implementation of enterprise PPM solutions
Strategic
How will the PPM tools support the proposed P3O® Model?
What is the key objective of the PPM tools?
Do the features match the organisation’s requirements?
Is the organisation planning to use the PPM solution to support strategic or business
planning cycles?
What features will be required now, and as the maturity of the organisation
increases?
Is the current PPM maturity appropriate for a move from individual tools to
collaborative tools?
What is the track record of PPM tools within the organisation?
Does the organisation need to purchase and implement the PPM tools as part of a
permanent P3O® model, or use an outsourced solution as part of a temporary P3O®
model?
How will senior management respond to new ways of working as a result of PPM
solutions?
What are the organisational change management implications of moving to a PPM
solution?
Is the organisation’s investment in multiple individual tools/software less efficient or
effective than implementing an enterprise PPM solution?
What are the risks associated with the implementation of the PPM solution and how
will they be managed pProcess
What processes will the PPM solution be aligned with? Can it support the current
processes and evolve to accept the new processes?
What processes can be done more efficiently using the PPM solution than by the
manual one?
What benefits can be realised by implementing more features?
Which processes are the highest priority to implement to realise early benefits?
How will the PPM solution integrate with the wider organisation?
Organisation
What roles and responsibilities will the PPM solution require?
What skills/competencies are required to implement, maintain, and improve the
PPM solution?
Will the PPM maturity of the organisation impact positively or negatively the PPM
solution, and the realisation of its benefits?
Are suitably skilled resources available to operate the PPM solution in production?
Tools and Technologies
Will the architecture support project delivery?
What licence requirements best suit the organisation’s approach?
Should the tools be purchased outright, outsourced, or used via a host solution?
Are the PPM tools easily configurable?
What costs are associated with the customisation of the tool?
What integration requirements will there be to legacy or line‐of‐business systems?
What are the minimum data requirements? How much effort is needed to ensure all
aspects of information assurance?
Information Flows
What key questions are being asked by senior management about the portfolio?
What information is needed from project/programmes to achieve this?
What information does the organisation need to monitor to achieve better
outcomes?
Will the information be automatically rolled‐up, or will multiple systems be needed?
Can data be easily migrated from current approaches into the PPM solution?
Can data be easily validated after migration to maintain data quality?
What capability is there to provide metrics on the health of the information within
the EPM solution?
P3O® Techniques
Examples of Techniques
Portfolio Prioritisation and Optimisation
Complexity Modelling
Management Dashboards
Knowledge Management
Business Process Swimlanes
Capacity Planning
Assurance, Gated reviews, and Health Checks
Prioritisation and Optimisation
Objective: To categorise the programmes and projects within a portfolio, based on agreed
measures that are commonly financial or use a multi‐criteria analysis, such as risk.
Benefits: Aids in determining where investment should be directed, rather than all projects
going full‐throttle, using the same resources and being cost inefficient. It supports senior
management in decision–making, evaluating how programmes/projects are aligned with
strategic objectives.
Complexity Modelling
Objective: To determine the appropriate lifecycle and governance for the programme/
project based on its complexity.
Benefits: Provides a structured approach to the tailoring of the standard lifecycle and
governance, thus providing both flexibility and standardisation of portfolio management
requirements.
Activities involved: The organisation must determine the criteria for the complexity of
projects and programmes. Analysis is performed to discover the drivers and their
parameters for the aforementioned criteria. Weightings are applied to create an algorithm
that results in an overall complexity score. The complexity score is used to determine the
recommended governance structures and tailored lifecycle for the project. It is important
to know that this technique will require refinement and ongoing review to ensure that the
weightings are appropriate to the governance applied.
Capacity Planning for Resource Management
Objective: To understand the resource capacity and competency supply‐and‐demand‐
levels, as well as take action to match these appropriately to delivery requirements.
Benefits: Reduces any obstacles in relation to capacity or competency that may impede
project/programme delivery
Sometimes, capacity planning is just an annual baseline for the planned porfolio that
informs project portfolio phasing to reduce gaps between resource supply and demand for
the year. It may also only address the capacity of key known resources points of failure, or it
may include competencies as well. As P3O® capacity increases, capacity planning may
involve frequent assessments based on resource experience.
Knowledge Management
Objective: To create an environment, including providing tools and processes, to support
the creation and sharing of knowledge.
Often confused with information management, knowledge management differs in that it
includes ideas, insights, experience. Due the difficulty of documenting that data, knowledge
management focuses on connection people.
The P3O®’s management of knowledge should be sensitive to the organisation’s view of
knowledge, but the P3O® can also change the opinion of the organisation by introducing
new knowledge management principles that tap into previously undervalued knowledge.
Management Dashboards
Objective: To provide decision‐support information across the portfolio using highlight and
exception‐based reporting, therefore giving a rolled‐up view of more detailed information.
Benefits: Supplements larger volumes of detailed reporting, allowing the decision‐makers
to better determine progress and understand where intervention may be required.
Activities Involved: When the programme or project sends in a status report, the dashboard
rearranges the data across different metrics. This allows the project board to quickly see
key information and evaluate where requires attention. The management board is updated
periodically and provided to the relevant governance group. The design and content of the
board must be fit for purpose for the relevant decision‐making bodies. Fitness for purposeis
confirmed by each of them, to ensure all requirements are satisfied.
It is important to note that this technique requires trustworthy and reliable information as
its main input. Information assurance should be applied to all data to ensure is trusted to
be the one version of the truth. If traffic lights are used, there must be consistent, agreed
use of red, amber, and green to ensure objective reporting.
An example of a portfolio management dashboard
Based on AXELOS P3O® material. Reproduced under licence from AXELOS Limited. All rights reserved.
Roles
P3O®s categorise roles into three sections: Management, Generic, or Functional. If the
office is large and/or permanent, the functional roles will often be assigned to one or more
people, whereas if it is small or temporary, the roles are often amalgamated under one job
desciption.
Management Roles
All management roles require:
Strong leadership and management skills, coupled with strong PPM skills
The ability to make and maintain relationships with all parts of the business, to
ensure all initiatives meet the requirements of the portfolio board
An understanding of the bigger picture and the objectives of the portfolio in regards
to the wider environment and how to ensure alignment with wider policy and
strategic initiatives
Established relationships across the business and portfolio, including senior
managers, programme and project teams, and third‐party service providers
P3O® Sponsor
Purpose:
To support and guide the implementation and continuing lifecycle processes of
the P3O®
Use strong leadership, management, and authority to establish and continually
improve the P3O® Responsibilities:
Develop and maintain business case, to secure the investment to re‐energise the
P3O®
Ensure business needs and issues are addressed properly
Review whether projects and programmes are aligning with wider policies
Identify how P3O® can assist in the change portfolio of other business areas
Risk Management
Exercise:
Your organisation does not have enough funds to fill all these roles. Evaluate their use, by
filling out the table below with a summary of the main consequences to the P3O® if they
are lost.
P3O® Sponser
Head of P3O®
Portfolio Analyst
Programme Specialist
Programme Officer
Functional Roles
Benefits and Value
Purpose
The purpose of the benefits and value role is that a reliable ‘fit for purpose’ approach to
benefits and value management is implemented and applied through the portfolio or
programme, and that benefits realisation is enhanced from the organisation’s investment in
change.
This role is typically undertaken by the portfolio benefits manager, or by someone that
reports to the portfolio benefits manager.
The finance department also plays a vital role in shaping the approach, methods, and
standards to be implemented.
Responsibilities
Developing and sustaining the P3O®’s benefits management framework
Forming the infrastructure essential in the implementation of the benefits
management framework
Providing training and awareness‐building meetings on the application of the benefits
management framework
Contributing in the investment appraisals, making sure that business‐case benefits
forecasts are dependable, and that they meet the organisation’s benefits eligibility
rules
Working with the business change managers and their teams to encourage more
effective benefits management practices
Providing guidance and support to the PPM and business‐as‐usual colleagues on the
expansion of initiative‐level benefits forecasts and benefits management policies
Providing assurance on the effectiveness of benefits management
On behalf of portfolio or programme management:
o Assisting the agreement of the benefits management strategy
o Leading benefits and dis‐benefits identification activities
o Leading and facilitating MoV studies
o Holding benefits‐mapping workshops, as well as evolving and maintaining a
benefits map
o Facilitating agreement on the benefits realisation plan
o Upholding the benefits forecast
o Evaluating the impact of change requests for their possible effect on benefits
realisation
o Tracking and reporting benefits realisation development for the dashboard
o Escalating issues with benefits realisation, as appropriate
Setting the standards for, and observing, post‐implementation reviews to compare
benefits realised with the benefits forecast
Working with the business managers or business change mangers to recognize
further opportunities for benefits management
Frequently revising and improving the effectiveness of benefits management
arrangements
Assessing benefits management across a number of programmes or projects to
detect gaps, overlaps and conflicts, and eliminating double‐counting in the benefits
plans of individual programmes and projects
Commercial
Purpose
The purpose of the commercial role is to ensure that the organisation carries out the role of
‘informed customer’, and that all commercial/procurement practices and decisions meet
the designated standards and offer the organisation value for its money.
It can also take on the role of supplier relationship manager, developing efficient and
effective relationships with suppliers, outsourcers, and partners.
This role may be a P3O® role, but is more likely to be embedded in the P3O®, with formal
line management from the commercial, procurement, or purchasing function.
Responsibilities
Early engagement with commercial, procurement, or purchasing teams to scope the
commercial element of the portfolio, programme, or project
Providing ongoing liaison with commercial, procurement, or purchasing teams
Providing liaison with the relevant statutory procurement functions
Developing and executing the portfolio, programme, or project procurement
strategy
Undertaking contracts management, including tracking deliverables against existing
contracts and managing any third-party or sub-contractor contracts
Ensuring that all contracts remain up‐to‐date and exit strategies are in place
Providing analysis of any requests for change that may have a contractual impact
Coordinate purchase order activities
Ensuring compliance with any applicable organizational, national, and international
standards and legislation
Providing commercial expertise/advice to the portfolio and programme teams, and
constituent projects
Facilitating relationships between the organisation’s senior management community,
SROs, and senior managers within the supplier community
Taking on supplier relationship manager responsibilities, which may include:
o Aiding the management of supplier and contractual risk, gauging all aspects of
supplier performance, and initiating remedial actions whenever and wherever
required
o Conducting contractual reviews with all major suppliers to the programme or
project on a regular basis
o Handling all aspects and stages of the contract lifecycle on behalf of the
programme or project manager
o Sustaining a catalogue of suppliers, services, products, and contracts within the
programme or project
o Providing a single liaison and contact point for all supplier and contractual issues
o Developing a full understanding of supplier strategies, plans, business needs, and
objectives
o Ensuring that the programme or project is working in partnership with suppliers,
building on long‐term relationships
o Enabling the development and negotiation of appropriate, achievable, and viable
contracts and contractual goals with suppliers
o Facilitating the negotiation of ‘value‐for‐money’ services and products with all
suppliers
Change Control
Purpose
The purpose of this role is to take the lead in ensuring that the portfolio, programme, or
project has effective processes in place to identify, monitor, and resolve changes.
Responsibilities
Developing and applying the change control process, making sure that the
commercial functions lead on contractual changes
Clearly communicating the change control process and the benefits of following it, to
all personnel involved with the portfolio, programme, or project
Creating and sustaining the portfolio, programme, or project change register
Registering changes for subsequent investigation and resolution
Making sure that all changes have a nominated owner
Ensuring that all changes have appropriate impact analysis and are planned,
resourced, and implemented through formal configuration management
Communicating with stakeholders, particularly those who are directly affected either
by the change itself or by the response to change
Assisting in the regular monitoring and review of all changes
Examining change registers across the portfolio or programme to look for common
themes and establishing consistent resolution procedures
Forming and maintaining an efficient two‐way flow of information between the
portfolio, programmes, and their projects
Escalating changes to a higher authority
Liaising with the information role on configuration management
Quality Assurance
Purpose
The purpose of the quality assurance role is to lead the work to ensure that any new
products or services delivered by the portfolio, programme, or project are fit for purpose
and capable of delivering the benefits required by the organisation board.
Responsibilities:
Ensuring compliance with any applicable organisational, national, and international
standards and legislation
Bringing together portfolio, programme, or project staff of different disciplines and
drive the group to plan, formulate, and agree a comprehensive quality management
strategy and quality management plan
Creating consistent quality practices and standards
Making sure tests and procedures are properly understood, carried out and assessed,
and product modifications are investigated if necessary
Working with the finance manager/analyst to ensure the portfolio, programme, or
project complies with audit requirements
Developing bespoke processes, and standards and templates for quality management
Coordinating quality reviews of portfolio, programme, or project documents and
deliverables
Providing health checks
Providing direction on quality criteria, reviewers, and sign‐off authority to ensure
cross‐portfolio or cross‐programme reliability
Working with commercial/purchasing staff to ensure an effective interface with
suppliers’ quality systems and oversee the quality review process for contractual
supplier deliverables
Liaising with COE or other bodies to arrange stage‐gated reviews
Coordinating gated reviews and stage reviews, and ensuring all information is
available in a timely manner and a quality format
Resource Management
Purpose
The purpose of the resource management role is to ensure that current and future
programmes and projects are equipped with enough human resources of the right skills, at
the right time they are required.
Responsibilities
Providing a capacity planning and resource tracking service across a portfolio or
programmes
Capturing the resource requirements of the portfolio, programme, or project and the
P3O® itself
Forecasting future resource needs, based on portfolio/programme/project plans,
close liaison with the relevant managers, and wider business plans
Providing a view of commitments on other programmes/projects and/or on
business‐as‐usual activities that will influence the ability of a portfolio, programme,
or project to deliver
Deciding on the best source for the required resources, depending on the long‐term
requirements of a particular skill and its likely availability
Planning and initiating the acquisition of the essential staff, in terms of both skill
content and quantity, ensuring they are in place at the time needed
Observing the deployment of staff, arranging new postings in advance of assignments
ending, to meet staff development needs, and to maintain a good match of skill to
role
Working with human resources and line management to facilitate succession
planning, including knowledge management and leavers’ process as required
Sustaining a database of resources, for people and their skills/attributes, location,
availability, contact details, and lead responsibility for the resource
Taking an active role in the training and development of portfolio, programme, or
project staff to increase the available skills capability and capacity within the business
Revising the provision of skills audits to regulate whether the proposed
programme/project staff have the required skills to deliver their role on the
programme or project
Establishing formal mentoring and coaching guidelines and mechanisms
Providing ‘help squads’ – supplementary skills to fill shortfalls within the portfolio,
programme, or project
Handling consultants’ and interims’ contractual status, closely monitoring use of
externals to ensure ongoing value for money
Managing resource planning, data collection, and PPM skills development
Risk
Purpose
The purpose of this role is to take the lead in making sure that the portfolio, programme, or
project has effective processes in place to identify and monitor risks, has access to reliable
and up‐to‐date information about risks, and uses the appropriate controls and actions to
deal with risks.
Responsibilities
Creating a risk management strategy for the P3O® in accordance with the corporate
risk management policy
Forming and maintaining the portfolio, programme, or project risk register
Supporting the identification and ongoing management of risks by running risk
workshops and risk‐review workshops
Making sure that all risks have a nominated owner
Ensuring all project risks that have wider programme implications are escalated and
dealt with at programme level
Providing cost estimates for all outstanding risks and making sure that risk mitigation
costs do not exceed risk occurrence costs
Communicating with stakeholders, particularly those who are directly affected either
by the risk itself or by the risk responses
Evaluating how effective any response actions have been and whether the risks
identified have actually materialised, including the realisation of opportunities
Reviewing all risks on a constructive, ‘no blame’ basis
Establishing and sustaining an efficient two‐way flow of information between the
portfolio, programmes, and their projects regarding risk handling
Examining risk registers across the portfolio or programme
Establishing consistent mitigation and contingency plans for risks that should be
tackled across the portfolio or programme
Supporting the sharing of risk registers with the supplier community
Assessing and monitoring the effectiveness of risk processes and refining it as
necessary
Reporting
Purpose
The purpose of the reporting role is to provide a reporting service to the portfolio,
programme, or project.
Responsibilities
Providing consistent reports to boards, including a commentary on performance,
coordinating upward aggregation of data/information, and reports
Making sure the reports are reliable through consistent traffic lights
Recognising and reporting abnormalities and trigger exception reports when
appropriate
Developing procedures to fulfil the internal reporting needs of the programme,
including the development and production of any contractual reports
Making sure that reporting deadlines are achieved
Ensuring that the reporting process is robust, exception‐based, and flexible enough
to meet the changing needs of the programme or project
Creating a weekly/monthly reporting calendar with reminders to information
contributors
Implementing and managing the weekly and monthly reporting cycle, chasing
information as required and challenging the quality of the component data
Building and sustaining an information base of trend data for the programme or
project reporting
Secretariat/Administrator
Purpose
The purpose of this role is to provide portfolio, programme, or project administrative
support and a secretariat function for the relevant boards.
Responsibilities
Sustaining knowledge/reference libraries/repositories in relation to governance
boards
Supporting facilities requirements as far as possible, matching supply to demand
Assisting the resource management role with the acquisition of resources by
maintaining relationships with external organisations that can supply them
Supporting the quality assurance role by liaising with the COE or other bodies to
assemble health checks, audits, third‐party reviews, and stage‐gated reviews
Forming a help desk for enquiries/issues/problems
Assisting in administrative support to the P3O®, including workshop/meeting
administration and the establishment and maintenance of the filing system
Providing logistical support for training courses
Providing administrative support for other non‐PPM activities
Tools Expert
Purpose
The purpose of the tools expert role is to provide expertise in the software tools to support
the change environment.
This provides support to the PPM community to configure software, or to provide training
and coaching in its use.
Responsibilities
Inspecting the market to source tools
Liaising with tools vendors regarding requirements specifications
Liaising with tools vendors regarding implementation plans and training
Carrying out internal mentoring/coaching in tools
Advising new programmes and projects on the appropriate use of tools
Project Executive
The individual who is ultimately responsible for a project. Their role is to ensure that the
project is focused throughout its lifecycle on achieving its objectives and delivering a
product that will achieve the forecast benefits.
Project Initiation Document (PID)
A logical document that brings together the key information needed to start a project on a
sound basis and to convey that information to all concerned with the project.
Resource
An organisation’s physical or virtual entities (human or other) that are of limited availability
and can be used to undertake operations or business change.
Risk potential assessment (RPA)
A standard set of high‐level criteria against which the intrinsic characteristics and degree of
difficulty of a proposed project are assessed. Used in the UK public sector to assess the
criticality of projects and so determine the level of OGC Gateway Review required.
Scale of risk
A standard technique for estimating the probability and impact of a risk across an
organisation, portfolio, programme, or project. This may be provided as part of a risk
management standard (external) or a Risk Management Strategy or Policy.
Senior Responsible Owner (SRO)
The single individual with overall responsibility for ensuring that a project or programme
meets its objectives and delivers the projected benefits.
Swimlane
A method for documenting business process flows that separates each process step into a
row (or lane) of accountability for individual roles or groups.
SWOT
Acronym for ‘Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats’. An analysis technique to
determine favourable and unfavourable factors in relation to business change or current
state.
Taxonomy
A classification of things, or the principles underlying such a classification. The term may be
applied to relationship schemes such as parent–child hierarchies and network structures. A
taxonomy might also be a simple organisation of kinds of things into groups, or even an
alphabetical list.
Zero‐based Cost Centre
Similar to a cost centre, except that the division, business unit, or part of the organisation
cross‐charges other parts of the organisation for some or all of its services or activities to
achieve a spend of zero when its costs and income from cross charging are added up.