About P3O

Portfolio, Programme and Project Offices (P3O®) is the latest best practice guidance from OGC.

Background to P3O
A P3O model provides a decision enabling/delivery support structure for all change within an organisation. This may be provided through a single permanent office which may exist under several different names, for example Portfolio Office, Centre of Excellence, Enterprise or Corporate Programme Office.

It may otherwise be provided through a linked set of offices (portfolio office, programme offices, project offices). These offices could be permanent (enabling/supporting business objectives and consistency of delivery) and temporary (enabling/supporting specific programmes and projects), providing a mix of central and localised services.

OGC's PRINCE2®, Managing Successful Programmes, and Management of Risk all touch on the need to provide adequate support structures for these best practices. Until now there has been no single source of information that either organisations or individuals can use for guidance or advice on setting up or running an effective delivery support office.

The guidance will provide:

An Introduction to P3Os - Discussing why, when and how to use P3O® models including the difference between portfolio, programmes and project environments and their different requirements


Value - What value P3Os can bring to the organisation including a business case, funding models and performance measures


Model - An overview of the different P3O models with examples


Functions and Techniques - Details on the functions/services and techniques/tools used by units of a P3O model.