Resume/CV Tips

My Resume Writing tips are:

1. For each role ensure you indicate size of the organisation, business unit or programme/project that you were/are part of. Indicate magnitude of budget that you have responsibility for (or oversight). State number of people that you managed.

2. Identify tools and methodologies that you have used and your level of expertese in these. Are you a Prince2 practitioner? Do you have Sharepoint or MS Project expertese? This is an indicator to whether you will need training up or you can add value from day one and train others.

3. For each role do not simply say what you did, indicate what impact you made. What improvements you made and what effect each of these had.

4. Do not send one standard CV/Resume out for all roles. Make sure that you edit it each time to emphasise what the employer is looking for in the role. Look at the advertised role or job spec and if for example they want knowledge and expertese in Business Analysis, make sure you clearly show where, when and for how long you gained such experience. The first half of page 1 of your CV/Resume should sell you to the employer.

5. DO NOT LIE. DO NOT MAKE THINGS UP. At the end of the day you will be caught out one way or another, sooner or later. Be honest.

P3O Practitioner Qualification Launched

The APM Group has announced the launch of its Practitioner level qualification for P3O. P3O is The Office of Government Commerce's (OGC's) guidance on managing Portfolio, Programme and Project Offices. It's a set of principles, processes and techniques to facilitate effective portfolio, programme and project management through enablement, challenge and support structures. The P3O guidance is aligned to OGC's PRINCE2®, MSP®, and M_o_R®.

Richard Pharro, CEO, The APM Group, said: "Demand from candidates who have taken the P3O Foundation examination that was launched in 2008 has facilitated the development of the new higher level qualification. Since the launch of the method we have seen great interest in P3O and we are pleased to support people who want to demonstrate their understanding of P3O with a recognised, professional qualification. This should further underpin the value their organisation will get from adopting P3O"

P3O courses are delivered by APM Group's Accredited Trainers. Candidates wanting to take the Practitioner examination must have already passed the Foundation level examination. The P3O course, typically takes place over five days, including the examinations.

The Foundation-level qualification focuses on concepts, structures and duties of a P3O and is designed for those working with or in a P3O. The examination consists of 50 multiple choice questions to be answered in 40 minutes. It is a closed-book examination and has a pass mark of 60 per cent.

The higher, Practitioner, qualification is designed for those responsible for setting up, managing or improving a P3O. The Practitioner exam is an objective test style paper. The paper consists of 7 questions to be completed within 135 minutes. It is an open book exam and candidates need to achieve a mark of 50% or more to pass the paper. A pre-requisite for this exam is a pass at Foundation level.

For full details visit www.apmgroup.co.uk/P3O/P3O.asp

OGC Launch New Guidance: P3O – Portfolio, Programme and Project Offices

I have been quite for a while due to my demanding, yet enjoyable, workload in my PMO role at Lloyds TSB, which is now part of the Lloyds Banking Group with the takeover of HBOS in January 2009.

During this time, the eagerly awaited P3O was officially launched by OGC on 28th October 2008 in Millbank, London.Portfolio, Programme and Project Offices (P3O) is the latest best practice guidance from the UK's Office of Government Commerce. It is in the same family of methodologies as PRINCE2, MSP and M_o_R.

There is a Foundation qualification and a yet to be launched Practitioner qualification.

Universal in its approach, the purpose of the P3O guidance is to provide advice that will enable individuals and organisations to establish, develop, and maintain appropriate business support structures that will allow:

• Informed senior management decision making on strategic alignment, prioritisation, risk management, optimisation of resources etc., to deliver business objectives (portfolio management) successfully.
• Identification and realisation of business outcomes and benefits via programmes.
• Successful delivery of project outputs that enable benefits within time, cost, and quality restraints.

P3O has been in development for over a year and Lead Author, Sue Vowler (one of the leading experts in the UK for P3O), has been involved with the project from the start. Her expertise lies in designing new P3O offices or re-energising existing units.

PMO Value Proposition

Where does your PMO stand in your organisation?
How do you describe the value proposition of your PMO?

A correctly designed PMO will typically show tangible benefits in its first six months of existence. To ensure this, executives must directly link their strategic planning process to project management across the enterprise.

The PMO will provide real value if it is constantly seeking out opportunities for project delivery acceleration. This requires developing project team cognitive skills to recognise delivery opportunities and threats as they uncover them. These skills are vital to the competitive advantage of the organisation.

A PMO can expect to generate a minimum of 10% reduction in overall project portfolio delivery costs during the first year that the PMO has been implemented. It’s not uncommon to see more. It is unusual not to.

However, this is not where the biggest value comes from. The greatest value of a PMO is in allowing the organisation to drive more projects through with the same resources, and to get projects completed sooner, continuously delivering benefits to the business. In many organisations, speed-to-market is the difference between a huge profit and a marginal profit or even a loss.

If an organisation is supported by a PMO, the first question that must always be answered is “what is the value of this PMO?”

The value that a PMO can add to your organisation is through:

• Establishing and deploying a common set of project management processes and templates, which will save each project manager, or each project stream, from having to create these on their own. These reusable project management components help projects start up more quickly and with less effort.

• Building the methodology and updating it to account for improvements and best practices. For example, as new or revised processes and templates are made available, the PMO deploys them consistently throughout the organization.

• Providing project management and collaboration tools (with associated training and support) for the Project Managers and their teams, that enable them to manage the project more smartly and with less effort, which will free up time for project delivery activities.
  
• Facilitating improved project team communications by having common processes, deliverables, and terminology. Less misunderstanding and confusion occurs within the organisation if everyone uses the same language and terminology for project-related work.

• Holding an overall view of the Project Portfolio/Programme, that individual projects will not have. This will be beneficial in assessing project risks, issues, changes and formulation of appropriate actions for these.

• Providing coaching and training (internal or outsourced) for Project Managers and their project teams, to build core project management competencies and a common set of experiences. If the training is delivered by the PMO, there is a further reduction in overall training costs paid to outside vendors.

• Delivering project management mentoring and coaching to keep projects from getting into trouble. Projects at risk can also be coached to ensure they do not worsen.

• Tracking basic information on the current status and progress of all projects in the organisation and providing project visibility to the leadership and other key stakeholders via a common and consistent reporting process.
  
• Tracking organisation-wide metrics on the state of project management, project delivery, and the value being provided to the business.
  

The PMO also assesses the general project delivery environment on an ongoing basis to determine the improvements that have been made. It acts as the overall champion for good project management practice within the organisation. This includes actively educating and selling project managers and team members on the value gained through the use of a consistent project management framework and technology-based tools.