Home / Course Information / Articles
Maven Training launches Project Support Office course
Project Managers have come out from under the bushel in recent years; many organisations are now fully appreciative of the skills their project managers have. This is great news for the project managers but what about the people who support them?
At Maven Training we understand the special role of the Project Support Office (PSO) and think it should get the recognition it deserves. Until now the PSO has had to do a very professional job while project managers get all the training and glory! We would like to redress the balance by offering a new course which will help PSO staff become more effective so offering offer greater value to their organisations. They’ll also gain a recognised qualification, adding to their professional status.
There are different types of support office, the PSO, the project and programme support office (PPSO), the programme management office (PMO) and the enterprise programme management office (EPMO).
The roles of these different offices can vary but essentially they will:
- Provide assurance and information for senior management on the role of programmes and projects on achieving organisational goals
- Support programme and project managers
- Maintain and develop the programme/project management process and support standards and template
- Provide project programme management process training, support, advice and guidance
- Provide quality review/assurance for project documents
- Provide a project monitoring and reporting service
The PSO can be viewed as a kind of signal box when it is deployed on a project by project basis, or it may support the organisation on a strategic level. In the latter case, the PSO acts as a control room and it’s important that the organisation understands these different roles.
The PSO will have to manage project management work flow, procedures and processes. It will also need to understand roles and responsibilities of the project or programme and ensure it supports the culture of the organisation. An essential element of its role is also to keep administrative systems of planning, budgeting, finance in order. It will also ensure that the programme and project management methods adopted by the organisation are consistently applied. Another key role is to share best practice.
Graham Shreeve is one of Maven Training’s most experienced project management trainers and he will run be running our new course. He says, “Many organisations underestimate the value and contribution made by the people who support their project managers.”
“In the past only the project managers have had the benefit of training but we hope that our new course will add kudos to the role, and help Support Office staff. It benefits the entire organisation if PSO staff are properly trained and understand how they contribute to project delivery.”
The first PPSO course will take place regularly in 2008. To find out about available dates please call us on 020 7403 7100.
‹ Back
