Based at Tameside Council in Ashton-Under-Lyne, Greater Manchester, Martin McCann has spent the last few years developing and implementing their tailored Project Management Approach. As part of the Transformation Team, his main role is to encourage and support the adoption and application of best practice project and programme management within the organization.
‘The implementation of the Project Management Approach underpins the Council’s Transformation Programme, which has a large number of new and existing projects within its remit. We’re facing changes which are both exciting and challenging,’ Martin says.
He was keen for Tameside to be among the first organizations to pilot the new P3O guidance from OGC. P3O brings together a set of principles, processes and techniques to facilitate effective portfolio, programme and project management through enablement, challenge and support structures. These structures also bridge the gap between the strategy and policy makers and the Council’s service delivery teams.
‘I met Anne Marie Byrne, the P3O project manager, at a conference, and from what she said about P3O I knew that it would be both relevant and timely for my organization to take part,’ Martin said.
Martin and his colleagues have been tasked with setting up a Programme Office to provide monitoring, reporting and control information on the Transformation work programme. ‘The P3O guidance is a comprehensive, practical resource which pulls together threads from all the OGC best practice methods. The guidance provides both interesting and useful information and it came at the perfect time for me to start applying it. It has helped solidify and structure many of my plans and ideas for setting up our own PSO. It has also provided me with good ideas on how to sell it to the right people within the organization,’ he says.
Martin also plans to use the P3O guidance to incorporate relevant generic and functional roles and responsibilities into the job descriptions of any new programme office staff. ‘I have tried to link the P3O roles and responsibilities to the functions and services the programme office intends to provide over the next few years, illustrating the levels of resource we’ll need if we want to run an effective programme office that continues to meet our needs as the Council’s PPM capabilities increase. Given that it can take a few years to start reaping the benefits of more effective programme management, I want to plant the seeds and start the process as early as possible, whilst managing expectations properly on the way!’
‘The manual will be a real boon to anyone starting out on setting up a P3O. It does a good job of tying P3M3, PRINCE2 and MSP together in a comprehensive fashion, which is exactly what a good P3O should be able to do. I also found that reading the P3O guidance has helped clarify my understanding of how to apply MSP in general,’ he says.
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