PMO/P3O Theme

Creating and managing the connection between strategy and change delivery.

As portfolio, programme and project (P3) management leaders, we understand and focus on  transformation delivery. We strive to ensure our projects and programmes work well within their management boundaries.

However, all organisations do more than deliver change. They must also operate effectively and perform today, create value for tomorrow and cope with risks and issues along the way. This leads to a myriad of goals and objectives that the organisation as a whole tries to achieve..

Unfortunately, we can’t achieve all of them. At every level, we face choices for how we deploy leadership attention, funding and scarce capability, For many this is simple negotiation of annual resource commitment for a function in order to carry out part of the organisations busienss against known performance metrics. Tactical Projects and programmes may fit within these management domains.

However – Projects and Programmes for Mission Critical or Strategic Objectives may be larger and more risky than Tactical ones, span management domains, and present dependency, resource allocation, change and benefit/value realisation management challenges.

Surprisingly, for many,, projects and programmes are left to find their own way within this challenging scenario, through the charisma of a project manager and the organisational clout of an executive sponsor.

The BIG approach to change delivery recognises that strong P3 capability and personality alone is not enough to achieve strategic objectives in the context of an organisation which has competing priorities. Sustainable performance depends on deliberate integration and  balance across business as usual, value creation and change – as opposed to a more laisser – faire approach (e.g. expecting projects to fend for themselves.)

BIG provides a practical framework for embedding strategy, enablement and control into day-to-day operations, while retaining the agility needed to respond to uncertainty.

• For P3 professionals, it can be used ‘bottom up’ to define / negotiate the organisational framework into which projects and programmes can (ideally) fit – beyond stipulating only the project and programme domain.
• From an alternative perspective, an enterprise architect can stipulate the necessities for strategy delivery more broadly than but including projects and programmes – providing fertile ground for projects from the outset.

So far, throughout its development, much of the BIG thinking has benefitted from the insight and experience of many PMO and P3O professionals . Our First published Version was created as part of the Praxis Website.  We maintain links with the APM PMO and Governance Interest Networks, referenced in our Professional Links..

The PMO and P3O theme brings this to life by surfacing relevant content from the Body of Knowledge and showcasing activity from our members, sponsors and professional partners – sharing ideas, inviting challenge and promoting events.

This Landing Page for P3 Professionals provides links to areas for discussion – to raise and comment on questions:

• NEW – Discussion are for the P3 Strategic Theme
• BIG CIC – LinkedIn Group

It also provides links to the BIG CIC Blogs related to portfolio, programme and project management – which are for consumption and discussion too: