Programme / Project Support Office

The Programme/Project Support Office (PPSO) can be an effective corporate resource if applied appropriately to provide 'value added' services in the project environment. The scope of the PPSO will depend on the size and complexity of the environment requiring the support. A well designed and appropriately resourced Programme / Project Support Office can provide invaluable services ranging from administration to specialist expertise, such as risk management and specialist activities such as running programme and projects management tools.  This leaves the programmes and projects free to concentrate on content and the business of running them to achieve success.

Some examples of the scope content could be;

• Administrative services
• Provision of expertise in Planning, Business Case, Risk Management, Issue Management etc
• Central conduit for communications for the project environment
• Centralised Configuration Management
• Audit and guidance on processes, tools and techniques

Administrative services - including archiving and knowledge management.

It is essential that specific terms of reference are applied to the PPSO else there will be a expectation that it will do all the work that others don't want to do, thereby devaluing its purpose.

Provision of expertise - economies of scale can be achieved through the concentration of resources with particular expertise than be applied across the range of programmes and projects. This may extend to coaching and mentoring appropriate staff engaged on the programmes and projects.

Communications hub - acting as a conduit for filtering researching, filtering and circulation relevant information to stakeholders.

Centralised configuration management - providing a mechanism for the tracking, recording and safe storage of information and programme / project assets

Audit and guidance - using the expertise within the office to support staff on their programmes and projects and providing audits of process and tools to ensure they are used appropriately and to best effect, advising on training needs etc.

Insights can help by assisting you to understand your needs in terms of a PPSO, facilitate the terms of reference applicable to your PPSO, facilitate the processes and procedures and train your personnel to use the facility in the most effective way.
We have a complete set of processes and tools that can be used and will tailor them to your needs.

For further information on Project Support Offices, please complete and send us the contact form or phone us for further details.