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Fresh Look: P3M Frameworks

Fresh Look – Is a series of articles taking a look at common topics to try to come up with some new ideas and insight into problems that seem to repeat themselves across many organisations.
No organisation can successfully deliver programmes and projects without an effective framework and common lifecycle around which controls can be based.
Our maturity and capability assessment of over 120 organisations enabled us to review a wide range of processes, guidance and tools that are used across a range of sectors.
We found:

  • Incomplete frameworks with inadequate lifecycles
  • Frameworks that replicate manuals and basic theory but add no value
  • Roles and responsibilities that are generic, confusing or conflicting
  • Themes, such as risk, that are not connected to the lifecycle or sit in isolation
  • Generic role definitions with no application of the responsibilities
  • Templates that bear no resemblance to the lifecycle or processes
  • Little connection between programme and project management systems
  • Portfolio Management frameworks that fail to address balancing priorities

To overcome this, we developed our own Align Framework® and offer it as a fully supported package. If you would like to find out more about the Align Framework, click here

Align Framework® is a registered trademark of Aspire Europe Limited.

How much of your training budget is wasted?

Strange but true

  1. In 2011 the UK National Audit Office (NAO) reported that a lack of programme and project management skills was one of the major concerns for senior managers. In 2017 there is an estimate that the UK public sector is 4,000 short of the number needed to deliver Brexit.
  2. Our skills and capability assessments have also highlighted some other alarming statistics, one of which is that 23% of people involved in transformation programmes and projects have no formal qualifications.
  3. Over 250,000 people worldwide are qualified in PRINCE2® and over 50,000 in Managing Successful Programmes (MSP®), but when we undertake maturity assessments and assurance reviews, we find organisations do not actually use the fundamental concepts or processes. So basically people are gaining qualifications on subject areas they do not use.

If you are interested in finding out more about why organisations fail to extract better value from the training market, why not read our article – delivering better value from training
In the meantime, here are the things that the Aspire Academy award winning team can help you with.
If you want targeted development to improve organisational and individual performance in both the processes and leadership of change, we can help with the  following:

  1. Competency Framework – that can be adapted for your organisation to help target your training and is aligned to the APM Body of Knowledge.
  2. Competency and Capability Assessment – the process and survey that can profile the current organisation to target your training more effectively.
  3. Short Courses – a range of  ‘off the shelf’, customisable topic and role related courses specifically targeted at improving performance. A number have associated vocational qualifications from C4CM.
  4. eLearning Courses – we have all the main APM Group and AXELOS Limited qualification courses and a range of topic specific courses that focus on application of the concepts, e.g. planning.
  5. Accredited Qualifications – we can offer the full range of APM, APM Group, AXELOS Limited and C4CM qualifications in face-to-face events. Result statistics from the APMG exam institute show our average pass rate across all our products and qualification levels is a 97% success rate over the past year!
  6. Align Framework – A portfolio, programme and project framework which provides a self-help knowledge base and just-in-time guidance for teams. For more information on the Align Framework, click here.
  7. Community of Practice – will enable personal development and networking and organisational learning and improvement.
MSP® and PRINCE2® are [registered] trade marks of AXELOS Limited, used under permission of AXELOS Limited. All rights reserved.

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Fresh Look: Dependency Management

We thought it would be a good idea to revisit some of the guiding principles that underpin the world of portfolio, programme and project management. In a world of information overload it is very easy to lose sight of what matters.
Dependency Management really is one of the Dark Arts. It  about the interfaces between initiatives. At a programme level it is what planning is all about, tracking how the inputs and the outputs of projects fits together. At the portfolio level it is even more complex as it is matching together inputs and outputs from programmes and projects.
In MSP® 2011 we introduced the concepts of Intra, Inter and External dependencies so here is the paper that defined the original concept and explains how they operate in a programme management environment.

MSP® is a [registered] trade mark of AXELOS Limited, used under permission of AXELOS Limited. All rights reserved.

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Great news – You can now use our eLearning from your mobile devices

We are excited to announce that our Aspire Academy eLearning portal now has its own Mobile app out of the box, due to a recent upgrade.
With the Moodle Mobile (the official mobile app for Moodle) you can:

  • Browse the content of your courses, even when offline
  • Receive instant notifications of messages and other events
  • Upload images, audio, videos and other files from your mobile device
  • Track your progress and view your course grades
  • Attempt tests
  • Access eLearning packages on and off-line

The Mobile app is available for free from Google Play and the Apple Store. See Moodle Mobile downloads for links. You can also install the app directly from your mobile device by searching for ‘Moodle Mobile’ with author/owner ‘Moodle Pty Ltd’ in Google Play/Store.
Please note we recommend an Android tablet or iPad for the best viewing experience.
To access the our site in the Moodle Mobile app, please enter the URL – aspireacademy.tv/moodle – on the Connect to Moodle screen, and then log in with your normal details.
For help in setting up access to our site from your mobile, please contact our Academy team at theacademyteam@aspireeurope.com or call us on 0117 440 2560
For more information on our eLearning, please have a look at this product description
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Project Challenge – eLearning discount offer

To celebrate the Programme and Project  Management festival at Project Challenge we are making a very special offer  on our eLearning products, of which we have over 200 hours available and covers all the  major qualifications and more advanced  products.
On top of the TSO offer on our MSP Survival Guides offer on our books, for the period of the show, we will be making the following offer on our  eLearning:

  1. Single user site licence – all 200 hours, normally £950 for the year reduced to £750 per annum
  2. Company site licence – unlimited users and unlimited use of the  materials, and customer support to configure professional learning journeys – normally £29,995 reduced to £25,000

Please have a look at our attached product description. If you are at  the show please come and speak to either Claire, Penny or Rod on the APM Group stand or give us a call on 0117 440 2560
eLearning Site Licence
 
 

Fresh look – P3M v Corporate risk interfaces

Welcome to another  one of our Fresh Look, these are a series  of articles taking a look at common topics to try to come up with some new ideas and insight into problems that seem to repeat themselves across many organisations.

In this article we look at the dysfunctional relationship between and organisations corporate risk world and the  P3M risk world and offer some ideas on how it could be better. Fresh look – P3M v Corporate Risk Management
 

Project Challenge – Driving Delivery Performance – changing ourselves

Aspire Europe will  be presenting at Project Challenge next  week, talking about the difficulties in delivering change and performance improvement to the P3M organisation.
Presentation will be on at 12.15pm and is in collaboration with the APM Group.
We will have  representatives  on the APM Group stand on both days so we hope that you will come along and say hello and find  out  about  the training services that we  can offer.

Adopting P3O – your questions answered

P3O® stands for Portfolio, Programme and Project Offices, it is the UK Government publication on how to set up an organisational environment in which there are a mix of these offices and how they should interact with each other.
In this short video (from our partners at CC Learning in Brisbane) Elissa Farrow, a trainer at CC Learning, talks about implementing P3O within an organisation. Specifically, she discusses the hub and spoke model of Portfolio, Programme and Project offices.
We hope you find it useful!
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zbv3mpe-uhc]

P3O® is a [registered] trade mark of AXELOS Limited, used under permission of AXELOS Limited. All rights reserved.

Case study – implementing a Change Advocates network

As regular blog watchers will know, Aspire Academy were involved in a TJ Awards short-listed change management training and development programme at Cheshire West and Chester Council.
The Aspire Academy team who delivered the assignment were Robert Cole and David King.
This video outlines how we designed and implemented an approach that pulled together a disparate group of change people across a number of sites into a coherent and functioning organisation.
If you would like to see the full case study  click here

Press Release: Aspire Europe acquire Rovsing Business Academy, Denmark


Bristol, 1st December.  0900
Aspire Europe Ltd are very pleased to announce the acquisition of a majority shareholding in Rovsing Business Academy, a Danish based  training company offering Axelos and APM Group training courses.  Anders  Murmann has been appointed at as the CEO.
Rod Sowden, Managing Director, Aspire Europe Ltd said “This is a really exciting development for Aspire Europe, acquiring such a well known brand in Denmark provides us with the opportunity to expand our operations and establish solid foundation inside the  EU.  We are very pleased to have  Anders onboard and running our Danish operations. He is a great addition to the Aspire Europe management team and we are looking forward to working with him in the years to  come”