Overview
In 2 days, Excelia Business School's PMO (Project Management Office) training prepares your experienced project managers, your project directors and your PMO managers to organise and steer your company's projects. A PMO is an organisation that enables a company or a department to deploy its strategy operationally. It manages a portfolio of aligned and prioritised projects and disseminates a common method and common tools for project management.
Why choose the Project Management Office (PMO) course?
The course pursues a precise objective: to deploy a PMO in your department or in your company. Your project managers learn to align projects with the strategy, to choose them, and then to coordinate them in all their dimensions.
A project management approach also gives team managers means of taking action based on their role in the project rather than on hierarchy. These means of taking action matter when projects cut across several departments.
Steering a portfolio, not just a project
Steering a portfolio changes the scale of work: your project managers organise all the projects of a department or of the company. The course first has them work on project prioritisation starting from the strategy, on the basis of criteria and return on investment, and then on the trade-off processes within the company. They then set up a project portfolio management framework and track cross-cutting indicators, so that your company has a single method and shared tools rather than practices specific to each team. Each of them concludes the second day by putting in place their individual action plan. The PMO training forms part of the offering of Excelia Business School's Executive Education Centre.
The third level of a project management pathway
The PMO training belongs to a project management pathway structured in complementary modules, of which it is the third level. It assumes a first experience of project management or completion of the Project management fundamentals (level 1) course. The pathway also includes the Project management performance (level 2) course. A training manager can thus choose the level that matches the experience of their team members.
The skills targeted
At the end of the course, your project managers will be able to:
- Understand all the typologies of a PMO
- Take into account the company's context, issues and players in order to deploy a PMO suited to its needs
- Deploy a change management plan
- Put in place tools for project management and for steering the portfolio
Curriculum
The Project Management Office (PMO) course lasts 2 days, or 14 hours, and takes place in a virtual classroom via Teams. It is the third level of the project management pathway.
How you learn
The course constantly alternates between theory and practice, and gives you what you need to practise, to be supported and to measure your progress:
- Short theoretical sequences, attended together
- Practical work in small teams of 3 to 4 learners
- A practice workbook provided before the course, shared in each team's virtual room to carry out the exercises
- Pedagogical activities linked to each module
- A self-evaluation of learning outcomes at the end of the session
- Additional operational coaching sessions, for anyone who wishes
Two days, from prioritisation to steering
The first day sets out the PMO and project prioritisation. The second sets up your project portfolio management framework and organises its steering, through to your individual action plan. The two days are detailed in the modules below.
The roles of the PMO and project prioritisation
The first day presents the roles of the PMO and situates it within your company's governance, then has you prioritise projects starting from the strategy: criteria, return on investment and trade-offs.
Module titles
- Kick-off: forming the teams, operating rules, programme
- Reminders and definitions
- The different roles of the PMO, its activities and its services
- The PMO adapted to the company's governance
- Prioritise projects: from the strategy to the project
- Criteria and return on investment
- Trade-off processes within the company
Set up your framework and steer the portfolio
The second day puts the portfolio under steering: you set up your project portfolio management framework, track cross-cutting indicators, address the change management specific to PMOs, choose your tools and set your individual action plan.
Module titles
- Pedagogical warm-up
- Set up your project portfolio management framework
- Steer the project portfolio
- Track the cross-cutting indicators and steering processes
- Manage change for PMOs
- Choose your project management tools
- Put in place your individual action plan
Funding
The Project Management Office (PMO) course is delivered in-company, on quotation, for 2 days, or 14 hours, in a virtual classroom via Teams. The dates are specified with Excelia Business School's Executive Education Centre. For a scheme designed around your organisation, Excelia Business School offers tailor-made in-company training.
How registration is prepared
A positioning and needs-gathering questionnaire opens the process. The access lead time is then around 15 days on receipt of the signed contractual documents, a useful reference point for organising your project managers' absence.
At Excelia Executive Education, we offer personalised support to help every profile — company, employee, self-employed person or public sector employee — to make their training projects a reality by drawing on the most suitable funding schemes.
FAQ
What is a PMO (Project Management Office)?
A PMO is an organisation that enables a company or a department to deploy its strategy operationally, to manage a portfolio of aligned and prioritised projects and to disseminate a common method and common tools. The PMO training teaches you to deploy one in your department or in your company.
What is the difference between managing a project and steering a project portfolio?
Managing a project means leading a given project, whereas steering a project portfolio amounts to organising all of those in a department or a company: prioritising them starting from the strategy, making trade-offs between them and tracking cross-cutting indicators. The PMO training focuses on this second task, within the project management pathway of which it is level 3.
Do you need to have taken the Project management level 1 course to take the PMO training?
Not necessarily. The PMO training assumes a first experience of project management or completion of the level 1 modules. It is aimed at experienced project managers, project directors and PMO managers, in all sectors of activity.
What does the programme of the two-day PMO training cover?
The first day covers the roles, activities and services of the PMO, its adaptation to the company's governance, then project prioritisation starting from the strategy and the trade-off processes. The second day is devoted to setting up a project portfolio management framework, to steering the portfolio and its cross-cutting indicators, to change management, to the choice of tools and to an individual action plan.
Admissions
Target audience
Project manager with experience or who has completed level 1, project director, PMO manager, all types of sectors of activity.
Prerequisites
- A first experience of project management and/or completion of the project management level 1 modules.
Access arrangements & lead time
- Positioning and needs-gathering questionnaire.
- Access lead time: around 15 days on receipt of the signed contractual documents.
