P3O Practitioner flashcards
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32 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.
- P3O definition
- A decision-enabling and delivery support structure providing portfolio, programme and project support services to the organisation, delivered through one or more permanent or temporary offices.
- Portfolio Office purpose
- Supports senior decision-makers in prioritising investment across all change, balancing risk and capacity, and confirming that the portfolio delivers strategic objectives.
- Programme Office purpose
- Supports a specific programme or large change by integrating projects, managing dependencies, tracking benefits and providing consolidated reporting to the programme board.
- Project delivery office purpose
- Provides project-level support such as planning, reporting, risk and issue administration, change control and configuration management to one or more delivery teams.
- Centre of excellence function
- The P3O service that sets methods and standards, develops competency, owns tooling, coordinates assurance and captures lessons across the organisation.
- Hub-and-spoke P3O model
- A central P3O defines standards and specialist services while embedded offices in programmes and projects apply them locally, reporting exceptions back to the hub.
- Five Case Model
- Business case structure comprising strategic, economic, commercial, financial and management cases; used to justify investment and the preferred option.
- Do-nothing option
- The mandatory baseline option in an options appraisal; other options are assessed against it so that the value of change is explicit.
- P3O business case
- Justifies the office itself: services to be provided, cost, expected improvements in decision-making and delivery, and consequences of not investing.
- Benefits register
- A record of each benefit with owner, baseline, measure, target, realisation date and status; used to track and report benefits realisation.
- Cash-releasing benefit
- A benefit that reduces actual expenditure, allowing budget to be removed or redirected, as distinct from cost avoidance or efficiency gains.
- P3O lifecycle stages
- Identify need and scope, design the model, implement, operate and embed, then review with options to continue, expand, reduce or close.
- P3O implementation gate
- A decision point in the implementation lifecycle where the sponsor approves progression based on defined deliverables, risks and continued justification.
- Service catalogue
- The P3O operating document listing each service with description, owner, trigger, inputs, outputs, customers and agreed service levels.
- Demand management
- A single intake route for change requests, assessed against strategic objectives and capacity, producing a documented prioritisation decision.
- Assurance review
- An independent assessment planned by risk and materiality, with findings rated and tracked to closure by named owners and dates.
- Exception reporting
- Reporting that highlights variances from plan or tolerance rather than reproducing all data, so decision-makers focus on what needs action.
- P3O performance measures
- Indicators of the office's own value: service uptake, customer satisfaction, reporting timeliness, assurance closure rate and benefits supported.
- Head of P3O role
- Accountable for the service catalogue, staffing, budget and performance of the P3O; reports to the P3O sponsor and manages office leads.
- P3O sponsor role
- Accountable for the P3O business case, secures funding, removes blockers and chairs the forum that reviews P3O performance and direction.
- Separation of duties
- The principle that the P3O supporting a change should not also be the sole independent assurance of that same change.
- Business change manager role
- Owns benefits realisation plans and prepares the business to adopt change; the P3O supports and tracks but does not own the benefits.
- P3O maturity assessment
- Compares current against target capability for each service, and the gaps prioritise the P3O roadmap rather than scoring the team.
- Tool selection criteria
- Fit to required services first, then integration, data quality, total cost, supportability and ability to export data on exit.
- Tailoring drivers
- Size, complexity, risk, culture, regulation, geographic spread and delivery method determine how much governance and documentation a P3O applies.
- Tailoring rule
- Reduce documentation and governance to the minimum that still supports decisions; every artifact must name the decision it informs.
- Agile portfolio tailoring
- Retains portfolio prioritisation and benefits tracking while replacing stage gates with lightweight investment decision points and rolling forecasts.
- Dependency mapping
- A technique identifying and tracking inter-project and inter-programme dependencies so that sequencing and resource conflicts are managed at portfolio level.
- Gateway review technique
- A structured independent review at key decision points in a change lifecycle, assessing deliverability and readiness to proceed.
- Single source of truth
- The rule that each data item has one defined owner, one system of record and a defined update frequency, with dashboards traceable to it.
- Embedded P3O
- A temporary office created for one programme or project and disbanded at closure, with staff and assets explicitly transitioned or released.
- P3O closure decision
- The lifecycle review outcome determining whether the office continues, expands, reduces, merges or closes, based on evidence against its business case.