MSP is owned by the UK Office of Government Commerce and administered through a company called The APM Group, which also administers PRINCE2 Certification.

Program Management and MSP: a Three-Minute Brief

Programme Management is a way of approaching the setting up and running of a programme, which is made up of a specific set of projects identified by an organisation that together will deliver some defined objective, or set of objectives, for the organisation.

The objectives of the programme are typically at a strategic level such that the organisation can achieve benefits and improvements in its business operation.

There is a close link between Programme Management and Project management because the programme is made up of projects and can only succeed if the projects within it succeed.

The concept of a programme is that it should be more than the sum of its parts. In other words, without Programme Management, the projects would probably still deliver their particular outcomes but these would not be co-ordinated or integrated into the achievement of a strategic goal.

1. The Principles in Managing Successful Programmes advise how to:

• Organise people to ensure responsibilities and lines of communication are clear
• Plan the work in a way which achieves results
• Ensure that the organisation does benefit from undertaking the programme
• Ensure that all interested parties (the stakeholders) are involved
• Resolve issues which arise
• Identify and manage risks
• Ensure quality
• Keep up to date information which tracks the continually changing environment
• Audit a programme to ensure standards are being followed

2. The Processes in Managing Successful Programmes describe how to:

• Identify the aim of the programme and envisaged benefits to the organisation
• Define the programme, and specify how the organisation will be different afterwards
• Establish the programme
• Monitor and co-ordinate the projects within a programme to a successful conclusion
• Manage the transition between the 'old' and 'new' ways of working, ensuring benefit
• Close the programme and ensure the 'end goal' has been achieved

Our Courses

There are currently three qualifications available for MSP (NEW 2007 Manual).

• Foundation - 3.5 day course with a multiple choice examination
• Practitioner - 5 days (including Foundation) with a 2.5 hour multiple choice exam designed to test your knowledge of basic concepts and understanding of MSP.
• Advanced Practitioner - 2 days with a complex case study to test comprehension of the method, to be answered in 2.5 hours.

Yellowhouse is an MSP Accredited Training Organisation. Check out MSP courses here

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