AIPMO BC-IPMO Certification

(Writing Effective Business Cases for Business Development, Project Portfolio Environments and Individual Initiatives)

  • A Systems Approach to Creating and Managing Business Cases Encompassing Business Development, Project, Program, Portfolio Management and PMOs

COURSE OVERVIEW

This course presents the AIPMO 9C’s, an innovative, 21st-century principle-based lifecycle-based approach to business case structures, content, and the case building process.  AIPMO has designed the framework with experts to cover and integrate projects, programs and portfolios using a systems approach to business case writing, that supports Agile, waterfall, and hybrid methodologies. See figure 1. The 9C’s principle-based framework when implemented, will be benchmarkable against AIPMO’s principle-based maturity model which is in based on current research and in development.

Attendees will use the business cases exercises on the course. However, time is set aside for people to bring their own cases and work on these, with the potential for coaching input from the facilitator and support from other course participants.

Part II – The Business Case in Project Portfolio Management

 

Part II changes the nature of the course; whereas Part I focuses on the construction of robust cases, the remainder of the activities look at the broader world of business cases in projects, programs and portfolios and the context of the Project Management Office.

This will scope in interactions with key stakeholders and the creation, balancing and reshaping of the portfolio, as events in the external environment impact the business and drive changes.

Because of the nature of part II, much of the learning will be via case study analysis, role plays and small group discussions and plenary debates, meaning that the activities will be highly interactive and comparative learning (inter person and inter group) will feature heavily, with theory blocks featuring less significantly than in part I.

COURSE MODULES

What You Need to Know

Duration

5 Days

 

 

 

Assessment

Exam

 

 

 

Certification

IPMO-F Certificate

Key Takeaways

  • Explain the importance of a framework approach to creating robust business cases
  • Articulate the importance of systems thinking in developing business cases
  • Assess how to define business case principles and the importance of principles within the business case framework. Analyze how principle-driven case building facilitates agile development and agile management
  • Analyze how business cases are created in a project/program portfolio environment including agile, traditional and hybrid environments
  • Recognize and mitigate the risks of business case manipulation, cognitive bias, cognitive dissonance
  • Compare your business cases and the surrounding environment with AIPMO’s Business Case Maturity Model and synthesize value by aligning good practices
  • Assess how to create a business case service from a PMO perspective and how to determine the capabilities to run this service for projects and programs

Who should attend

  • Business development managers, marketing and product managers who support their clients in making business decisions
  • PMO/IT Directors/Directors, Portfolio managers, and senior management
  • Finance Controllers, PMO Core team members
  • Senior project/program management professionals
  • Senior consultants (involved in projects and/or organizational change)
  • Engineers and subject matter experts involved in writing business cases
  • Business and university school faculty
  • Those responsible for compliance with government regulations or for working with regulatory agencies

Teaching Approach

● Lecture
● Team exercises
● Group discussions
● Detailed five-day case study
● Presentations and role play
● Personal coaching
● Examination

Pre-requisites

  • Ideally some experience in PMO, project, program, portfolio management
  • Basic knowledge of Excel® (data entry and formulas) and a basic understanding of finance
  • Ideally some exposure to business cases

Exam

  • Exam given at the end of the course moderated by the instructor:
    • Part I – 1 hour with 30 multiple choice questions
    • Part II – 45 minutes with three scenarios and three multiple choice questions for each scenario
  • Delegates will need to take an exam and submit a completed case study before the last in-class session for marking.
  • Delegates will need to pass both the examination and the case study criteria to receive certification