The following article is part of the self-preparation for the modern BVOP® Certified Project Manager program.
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What is a Program Management Office?
Program Management Office in the context of BVOP is a management structure responsible for all program and project management activities in the organization.
BVOP has its modern views on the Program Management Office and calls it the Business Value-Oriented Program Management Office and the whole abstract concept - Business Value-Oriented Program Management (BVOPGM).
BVOPGM can be a whole team or even one person in the organization as long as they can satisfy all responsibilities and fully support other related offices.
Business Value-Oriented Program Management (BVOPGM) is a set of activities and a style of planning, evaluation, and management that focuses on adding business value to the organization, project management, and people.
Activities of the Business Value-Oriented Program Management
Activities of the Business Value-Oriented Program Management (BVOPGM) Office may include:
- Program definition and evaluation
- Defining program benefits
- Analyzing projects dependencies
- Program planning
- Program risk management
- Program stakeholders management
- Program resources management
- Choosing management and development methodologies and practices (realizations sets)
- Modifying or combining realizations sets
- Presenting realizations sets
- Training other roles
- Observing efficiency
- Adjusting realization sets
- Maintaining a knowledge database of lessons learned
- Sharing knowledge with other roles
- Supporting other roles
- Monitoring and controlling program execution
Program definition and evaluation
As an initial step, program definition may include listing and describing all projects included in the program. Afterwards all projects must be evaluated on criteria such as:
- Organizational goals
- Ethical standards
- Cultural specifics of the organization
- The attitude of organization’s members
- Third parties interests
- Political factors
- Legal issues
- Authorities regulations
- Economical factors
- Social acceptance
- General feasibility
Evaluation may require information requests from different stakeholders, sponsors, internal and external parties, or authorities. Concerns from key personnel and particular departments are taken into account. Research and analysis of market climate, competition, potential users, financial, and economic factors may also be required for valuable program evaluation.
Defining program benefits
The benefit of the program is an abstract understanding of the overall benefits of all projects within the program. Any project planned for development (development or acquisition) should be potentially valuable to the organization or other financial or non-financial stakeholders.
The basic understanding of a financial benefit is when all investments in the project are returned, and the organization also expects additional profits. Another financial benefit may be obtaining funds or minimizing costs.
If non-financial benefits are obtained, then the organization might not have returned their investment but gained other benefits such as:
- Improving organizational image
- Political impact
- Social impact
- Stakeholders satisfaction
- Satisfying customers
- Increased employee engagement
- Technology improvement
- Improved performance indicators
- Productivity improvement
- Process improvement
- Future risk reduction
The following issues related to chapter "Business Value-Oriented Program Management (BVOPGM)" are included in the certification exam. The sequence of questions is presented in the table.
The data is current as of October 4, 2024, 9:01 pm
| ID | Issue | Time | Category |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | Program definition and evaluation | 60 sec | PGM, PM |
| 1 | Defining program benefits | 60 sec | PGM, PM |
Comments from the BVOP™ community on “Business Value-Oriented Program Management (BVOPGM)”
Laura Acreman
I want to focus the reader's attention on the fact that the activities of the Business Value Oriented Program Management Office include more activities than the traditional program management drills and practices.
Of course, there are a lot of traditional and familiar duties such as planning, stakeholder management, resource management, project dependency analysis, benefit definition, and definition of the whole. Controlling of program implementation is also covered in the context of BVOP.
The new activity, which is unique, is to support the other roles in the Project and Project Management Office and all who are potentially dependent on these.
Another new and unusual topic, deserving an admiration is the selection of project management practices, the consultation with the teams and the presentation of the selected management practices and processes to all stakeholders in the projects. Distribution of knowledge and everything learned is also a very important activity in my view. Everyone is developing together. Both companies and employees.
Last but not least, I would like to mention the monitoring of efficiency. Waste control and eventual loss is an action involving program and project managers. All teams are also supposed to observe for any such.
- Previous article The Business Value-Oriented Principles areas
I like very much the idea of program management to help work on the project management roles. This is very mature and reasonable. Project managers depend on a higher instance very often. Not always project managers can make decisions because often these solutions depend on many variables, facts, and business needs that only senior management knows in detail. Program directors and managers must be the people who create goals, rules, principles. Collaboration between all positions is the best strategy for each organization. That is exactly what I respect and follow the teachings of BVOP. And I hope that soon I will get my certificate.