Managing Successful Programmes (MSP) is an approach to managing organisational change through the governance and co-ordination of a cohesive set of projects and other change activities. While a programme manager may have experience or understanding of managing projects, this is neither necessary nor sufficient for success.

Programme management is a different discipline that is captured succinctly within the MSP framework. MSP is gaining ever wider acceptance in both the public and the private sector as best practice for programme management since it effectively bridges the potential management gap between the strategic and policy-setting levels of an organisation and the levels at which tactical operational changes are designed and implemented.

Programme management is still an emergent management discipline when compared with other disciplines such as project management. However, the latest release of MSP has taken a significant step forward in capturing best practice and formalising it. The lessons learnt by public and private sector programmes using previous versions of MSP have been used to enhance the existing MSP framework.

The processes for managing, governing and controlling programmes and the realisation of benefits are all more clearly defined while retaining the flexibility required of a framework that can be used in any organisation or industry sector. MSP now provides an adaptable routemap to achieve transformational change based on newly articulated programme management principles and governance themes. There is greater emphasis throughout on successful transformational change and its resulting benefits.

Outperform in an Accredited Consulting Organisation licensed to consult in MSP, M_o_R and PRINCE2. We have MSP Registered Consultants and PPM Registered Consultants who have been assessed for their experience and expertise at using and implementing the OGC methods.

To help organisations adjust to the new and improved MSP guidance from OGC, Outperform are running a series of 1-day training workshops.  The workshops are delivered in two parts. Part 1 (morning) provides an overview of MSP and highlights the differences in the 2007 version. Part 2 (afternoon) converts to workshop mode whereby some of the key techniques in MSP are practiced (for example how to define a good vision and blue-print).