AXELOS P3O® - Portfolio, Programme and Project Office

Aggregated risk :  The overall level of risk to the programme when all the risks are viewed as a totality rather than individually. This could include the outputs of particular scenarios or risk combinations.
Assurance :  All the systematic actions necessary to provide confidence that the target (system, process, organization, programme, project, outcome, benefit, capability, product output, deliverable) is appropriate. Appropriateness might be defined subjectively or objectively in different circumstances. The implication is that assurance will have a level of independence from that which is being assured. Benefit The measurable improvement resulting from an outcome perceived as an advantage by one or more stakeholders.
Centre of Excellence (COE) :  A coordinating function for all or part of P3RM ensuring change is delivered consistently and well, through standard processes and competent staff. It may provide standards, consistency of methods and processes, knowledge management, assurance and training. It may also provide strategic oversight, scrutiny and challenge across an organization's portfolio of programmes and projects. It may be a function within a wider scope of P3O or may be the only function of a P3O. This function provides a focal point for driving the implementation of improvements to increase the organization's capability and capacity in programme and project delivery.
Chief Executive Officer (CEO) :  Describes the role in a commercial organization with the highest level of authority for the total management of the business.
Chief Financial Officer (CFO) :  Describes the role in a commercial organization with the highest level of authority for the management of the financial risks, planning and reporting for a business. This role will generally report to the CEO.
Chief Information Officer (CIO) :  Describes the role in a commercial organization with the highest level of authority for the management of Information Technology for the business. This role will generally report to the CEO but may also report to the CFO in smaller organizations.
Chief Operating Officer (COO) :  Describes the role in a commercial organization with the highest level of authority for the development, design, management, and improvement of the open systems that create and deliver the organization's products and/or services. This role will generally report to the CEO.
Cost centre :  An accounting term used to describe a division, business unit or part of an organization that does not directly contribute to achieving profit for a company. It indirectly contributes to the organization by providing a service or support function to profit-making parts of the organization.
Dashboard :  See Management Dashboard.
Design Authority :  A role or function (permanent, temporary or virtual) that provides expert specialist advice or owns some corporate function, service, standard or strategy that will be affected, or a major programme outcome or change that needs to be controlled. This could be an IT or property infrastructure design, or a major service contract; it could also be a business process model or the programme or corporate Blueprint. The Design Authority provides expertise and guidance on a specific area to ensure there is appropriate alignment and control when changes are being planned and implemented. At a programme level this role may advise or own the Business Blueprint management on behalf of the programme manager. At the enterprise level, this role may manage the Enterprise Architecture of the organization.
Dis-benefit :  An outcome perceived as negative by one or more stakeholders. Dis- benefits are actual consequences of an activity, whereas a risk has some uncertainty about whether it will materialize.
End Project Report :  A report given by the project manager to the Project Board that confirms the handover of all products and provides an updated Business Case and an assessment of how well the project has done against its Project Initiation Document.
Enterprise Project (or P3RM) Management (EPM) :  A term usually referred to by software vendors in relation to software (i.e. EPM tools) that assists an organization manage across multiple projects and programme delivery using a common resource pool through to strategic analysis of investment through portfolio management. This term does not reflect the actual offerings of the tools in that they generally can support at portfolio, programme and project (P3RM) level.
Expert Reference Group :  A team of subject matter experts that can be used in a P3RM organization to provide input, advice and challenge to the role accountable for an output or outcome to ensure that it reflects the wider experience rather than an individual's perspective only. It is important to note that the role accountable for the output or outcome maintains the final decision and should not treat an Expert Reference Group as a committee. An Expert Reference Group may be drawn together at points in time or may be fully allocated to a project or programme.
Full-time equivalent (FTE) :  A technique used to measure human resource involvement in a project, programme or operational activities. It is required generally where human resources are allocated across multiple roles (e.g. 70% allocated to a project and 30% allocated to business operations). An FTE of 1 means that a person or the sum of all people's effort is 100% allocated to an activity, based on the number of working hours available, treatment of overtime and other parameters.
Gated Review :  Structured reviews of a project, programme or portfolio as part of formal governance arrangements that are carried out at key decision points in the lifecycle to ensure that the decision to invest as per agreed Business Cases and plans remains valid.
Governance (business change) :  Encompasses the structures, accountabilities and policies, standards and process for decision-making within an organization for business change to answer the key strategic questions of 'Are we doing the right things?', 'Are we doing them the right way?', 'Are we getting them done well?' and 'Are we getting the benefits?'
Health check :  A health check is a quality tool that provides a snapshot of the status of a project, programme or the portfolio. The purpose of a health check is to gain an objective assessment of how well the project, programme or portfolio is performing relative to its objectives and any relevant processes or standards. A health check differs from a Gated Review in that it is a tool used for assurance purposes by the P3O to inform specific actions or capability maturity development plans, whereas a Gated Review is part of formal governance arrangements.
Hub and Spoke :  A term to describe a system of organizational design for P3O where there is a centralized office (the hub) connected to a number of smaller decentralized offices (the spokes) each with a sub-set of the centralized office's business objectives, functions and services. All information and processes (connections) are arranged so that they move along spokes to the hub at the centre. A Hub and Spoke model provides the benefit of scalability for large organizations and supports business ownership by maintaining a level of decentralization.
Information Hub :  The centralized element of the Hub and Spoke model for P3O in terms of information flows (see Hub and Spoke definition). It supports highlight and exception-based reporting for projects, programmes and/or portfolios by amalgamating information with the process and information owned by the central office as the Information Hub.
Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) :  A set of guides on the management and provision of operational IT services.
Informed customer :  An individual, team or group with functional responsibility within an organization for ensuring that spend on IS/IT or other procurement is directed to best effect, i.e. that the business is receiving value for money and continues to achieve the most beneficial outcome. The term is often used in relation to the outsourcing of IT/IS. Sometimes also called 'Intelligent customer'.
Key Performance Indicator (KPI) :  Metric (either financial or non-financial) that is used to set and measure progress towards strategic objectives for an organization.
Management Board :  Generic term used to describe either project Management Boards, programme Management Boards or Portfolio management boards, or any combination based on the P3O context.
Management Dashboard :  A technique to represent vast amounts of decision-support information at an amalgamated level using tabular and graphic representation such as graphs and traffic lights.
Managing Successful Programmes (MSP) :  An OGC publication/method representing proven programme management good practice in successfully delivering transformational change, drawn from the experiences of both public and private sector organizations.
Mandate :  Information created externally to a project or programme that forms the terms of reference and is used to start up a PRINCE2 project or identify an MSP programme. A Mandate may be initiated through an unstructured approach, or it may be derived from strategic planning, business planning or portfolio management processes.
Matrix management :  A type of organizational management in which human resources with similar skills are pooled together for the assignment of work to other parts of an organization. In this approach, there is a separation between line management and line of authority in that a person may report to several project, programme or business managers to undertake multiple work assignments at different times but have a line of authority to a different manager altogether.
Organization Portfolio Office :  A type of P3O model that is designed to centrally manage the investment process, strategic alignment, prioritization and selection, progress tracking and monitoring, optimization and benefits achieved by an organization's projects and programmes on behalf of its senior management.
P3M3 :  OGC's Portfolio, Programme and Project Management Maturity Model.
P3O Sponsor :  A senior manager with appropriate authority who champions the establishment and evolving operation of the P3O. They will ideally be a member of the main board.
P3RM :  An acronym to describe portfolio, programme, project and risk management together.
Peer review :  Specific review of a project or any of its products where personnel from within the organization and/or from other organizations carry out an independent assessment of the project. Peer reviews can be done at any point within a project but are often used at stage-end points.
PESTLE :  Acronym for 'Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal and Environment' and is a technique used generally in organizational change management to undertake an environmental scan at a strategic level.
Pet project :  A project that is championed by an executive in an organization that may be aligned to an individual goal or goal for a specific part of the business, but not aligned to the strategic imperatives of the organization as a whole.
Portfolio, Programme and Project Offices (P3O) :  The decision enabling and support business model for all business change within an organization. This will include single or multiple physical or virtual structures, i.e. offices (permanent and/or temporary), providing a mix of central and localized functions and services, integration with governance arrangements and the wider business such as other corporate support functions.
PRINCE2 :  A method that supports some selected aspects of project management. The acronym stands for PRojects IN Controlled Environments.
Programme Brief :  A statement that describes the specific objectives, required benefits, potential risks, outline costs, timescales and potentially options for delivery for a programme.
Project Brief :  A statement that describes the purpose, cost, time and performance requirements/constraints for a project.
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 organization'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 organization, 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 organization 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 organization cross-charges other parts of the organization 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.