Top Two Reasons for Doing a P3O® Course

P3OIn between delivering PMO courses, I grabbed Eileen to have a chat about P3O©. Eileen is the author of the second version of P3O®- Project, Programmes and Portfolio Offices to give it its long title – and is of course our lead trainer here at PMO Learning.

P3O® is probably the most recognisable of the PMO courses that exist in the marketplace today and Eileen has delivered many of them over the years.

I wanted to know why PMO practitioners opt to do the P3O® course and Eileen gave me the top two reasons in her experiences when delivering this course.

PMO practitioners want to know:

  1. Which functions and services their PMO should offer and in turn understand if these functions and services are any good and making a difference in the business, and;
  2. How to gain support for a PMO

The course does cover the different functions and services the PMO can offer – the P3O® course concentrates more on the ‘what to do’ rather than ‘how to do it’

You could argue that no 5 day course could realistically cover all the ‘how to do it’ if you consider just how many functions and services can exist in a PMO.

She also went on to say that stakeholder engagement is indeed covered in the course – but its a small part because of the need to cover such a large curriculum in such a short space of time.

The P3O® course is good for getting the overall understanding of what PMOs are there to do; how they can be put together (the different topography like hub and spokes); the optimal sizes of them and the approach they take (supporting, directive, enabling, strategic)

Most PMO practitioners who consider the course opt for the full five days – taking the Foundation exam at the end of the third day before progressing to the Practitioner level with a final exam on the fifth day. Having said that, PMO practitioners who are not managing a PMO can gain the value they need from just taking the Foundation course for 3 days – saving both time and costs. It’s the final two days of the Practitioner level that is really geared towards PMO Managers.

If you’re looking for a good overview of the types of PMOs that exist and the functions and services it offers – P3O® Foundation will give you that – plus of course it’s a certification widely recognised.

If you’re wanting to understand how to gain support for a PMO – it’s the P3O® Practitioner level that you need to look at. A word of advice though – the Practitioner level cannot be taken unless you’ve done the Foundation level.

PMO Learning’s next open public P3O® courses take place in December – you can do 3 days of Foundation, 2 days of Practitioner or opt for all 5 days in the week commencing 10th December.

[Find out more about the courses and learn with the P3O® author]

The P3O® courses on this page are offered by PMO Learning. P3O® is a [registered] trade mark of AXELOS Limited. P3O® is a registered trade mark of AXELOS Limited, used under permission of AXELOS Limited. The Swirl logo™ is a trade mark of AXELOS Limited, used under permission of AXELOS Limited. All rights reserved.

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