Programme overview
Technical depth: Practitioner · Practical mode: Case study
Introduction
Many organisations fund a project management office yet cannot say whether it improves delivery. Reporting grows, templates multiply and sponsors still question the value. Without an objective baseline, improvement effort follows fashion rather than evidence. This Core Concept course gives PMO practitioners a structured method to assess project, programme and portfolio maturity against recognised models, compare the results and turn the gaps into a sequenced improvement plan. Working on case material from several sectors, participants produce a PMO Maturity Assessment Report and Improvement Roadmap for their own office.
Course Objectives
- Define the scope, mandate and boundary of a PMO maturity review using ISO 21500 concepts and the office's service catalogue
- Apply the P3M3 perspectives and the Kerzner Project Management Maturity Model to score current capability against defined evidence criteria
- Collect and triangulate assessment evidence through structured interviews, document review and surveys
- Analyse capability gaps, root causes and improvement risks, and rank them by value and effort
- Design PMO performance measures and value indicators that track maturity progress over time
- Produce a PMO Maturity Assessment Report and Improvement Roadmap ready for sponsor approval
Target Audience
- Heads and managers of PMOs responsible for the office's services and development
- Portfolio and programme managers accountable for delivery capability across multiple initiatives
- Project controls and governance leads who maintain methods, standards and reporting
- Strategy and transformation office managers who rely on PMO data for investment decisions
- Internal audit and quality managers who review project delivery practices
Course Outline
Day 1: PMO Maturity Foundations and Current-State Baseline
- PMO Typology: Supportive, Controlling and Directive Models
- ISO 21500 Project, Programme and Portfolio Management Context and Concepts
- PMO Service Catalogue and Mandate Review
- Capability Versus Maturity: CMMI Staged Levels Explained
- PMO Health Check Questionnaire and Initial Baseline
Day 2: Maturity Models and Reference Standards
- P3M3 Seven Perspectives and Five Maturity Levels
- Kerzner Project Management Maturity Model: Common Language to Continuous Improvement
- PMI Standard for Organizational Project Management (OPM) Framework
- PMO Value Ring Framework and the PMO Practice Guide
- ISO 21505 Governance Principles and ISO 21504 Portfolio Guidance
Day 3: Conducting the Assessment
- Assessment Plan and Evidence Criteria Matrix
- Structured Interview Guide and Stakeholder Sampling
- Document and Artefact Review Against P3M3 Attributes
- Maturity Scoring Workshop and Calibration Rules
- Radar Chart and Heat Map Presentation of Results
Day 4: Gap Analysis, Risk and Improvement Design
- Gap Analysis and Root Cause Tracing with Fishbone Diagrams
- Improvement Prioritisation with a Value-Effort Matrix
- Common Failure Patterns: Template Overload and Reports Without Decisions
- PMO Balanced Scorecard and Value Indicators
- Improvement Risk Register and Change Readiness Check
Day 5: Case Work and the Improvement Roadmap
- Infrastructure Programme Office Case Study: Evidence Scoring
- Financial Services Portfolio Office Case Study: Gap Prioritisation
- Own-PMO Maturity Self-Assessment Build
- PMO Maturity Assessment Report and Improvement Roadmap Drafting
- Peer Review Panel and Roadmap Defence
Skills You Will Gain
- Maturity Model Application
- Capability Assessment
- Evidence-Based Scoring
- Gap Analysis
- Improvement Prioritisation
- PMO Performance Measurement
- Assessment Interviewing
- Roadmap Planning
Why Attend This Course
- Return with a PMO Maturity Assessment Report and Improvement Roadmap for your own office, tested by peers
- Show sponsors, with evidence rather than opinion, where the PMO adds value and where it does not
- Avoid the common trap of adding templates and reports that raise workload without raising maturity
- Compare assessment approaches with PMO practitioners from other sectors and countries
Conclusion
A PMO earns its place when it can show, with evidence, how it improves delivery. This course moves from defining the office's mandate and baseline, through the principal maturity models and reference standards, to running an assessment, analysing gaps and designing measures of progress. The final day applies the method to case material and to each participant's own office, producing a PMO Maturity Assessment Report and Improvement Roadmap that gives sponsors a clear, prioritised and defensible path to a more mature delivery capability.