Top 5 Organizations with Certifications to lead a Global Office of Project and Product Management in 2021

In the first part, we have recommended that every professional involved in project and product management needs to continually reinvent, evolve and enhance their profile to consolidate their professional career far beyond just focusing on leading a portfolio of traditional projects or just focusing on frameworks. Agile to show the part of products and in issues related to agility.

Based on my professional experience and my involvement in Project and Product Management Offices (commonly called PMO), it is essential to adapt to the world's constant changes at a social, political, or another level, such as the virus issue.

Reinventing oneself would require adequate and updated training in current times. From my perspective, they are under FUCA environments (fragility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity).

This evolution should support and back all the accumulated experience in synergy with current content to lead project and product management offices with guarantees.

In the previous version, I have talked about the roadmap of the various PMO certifications. In this part, I am sharing the "Top 5 Organizations with Certifications that can lead a Global Office of Projects and Products". I have shared my vision as a PMOfficer Authorised trainer and based on my personal and professional opinion. Here is what I have come up with the list of accreditation bodies and mentioned in alphabetical order. I leave it to the reader to determine which ones they consider from the below list.

The Swiss-based AIPMO certifications are always based on structure and content frameworks. The content of AIPMO certifications is always driven by PMO / Project Management research findings and expert knowledge that has been tested, implemented, and improved over three years. It helps AIPMO as an organization ensure that the frameworks, structures, and contents they are using will work across the industries and organizations. The AIPMO Certification Program includes three levels of certifications. These certifications are designed to measure an individual's knowledge and abilities to identify, justify, design, implement, and execute one or more PMOs. The three levels of certification are IPMO-Foundations, IPMO-Practitioner, and IPMO-Expert.

• Organization: Association of International Project Management Officers
• Price: £ 2400 - £ 3400 Face-to-face Format
• Requirements:
  • IPMO- Foundation: Educated at grade level or similar and 1+ years of work experience in project or PMO role. or
  • IPMO- Practitioner: 5 years of experience in Project, Program or Portfolio Management, two more years of experience in a PMO & IPMO-F ™ Certification, or PMI PMP® or AXELOS Foundation / Practitioner Levels in MSP®, P3O® or MoP®.
  • IPMO- Expert: 10 years of experience in Project, Program or Portfolio Management, more than two years as PMO Manager / PMO Director, and IPMO-P ™ Certification, o PMI PMP® or AXELOS Practitioner Level in MSP®, P3O® or MoP®
• Language: English

AXELOS is a joint venture, established in 2013 by the Cabinet Office on behalf of Her Majesty's Government (HMG) in the UK. It has been created to manage, develop and grow best portfolio practices. AXELOS has an enviable track record and an unrivaled portfolio of globally recognized best practice ratings. AXELOS is responsible for developing, improving, and promoting best practices, frameworks, and methodologies globally by individuals and organizations working primarily in IT service management, project, program, and portfolio management. AXELOS provides a specific certification for a PMO at the Fundamentals and Practitioner level: P3O, three complimentary ones at the Fundamentals and Practitioner level: MoP, MSP, and MOV, and a specialization P3M3

• Organization: AXELOS
• Price: P3O Foundation & Practitioner Pack £ 2,995
• Requirements: Not available
• Language: English

PMOfficers strive to achieve "PMO maturity" based on the experience of a group of +20 professionals working and leading Project and Product Offices based in Barcelona (Spain). They have designed the resources and courses that identify opportunities for innovation and continuous learning. It enables the project and product management office to adapt rapidly and continuously in highly competitive, complex, and changing environments. PMO officers focus on three certifications starting from foundation, strategic roadmap, and setup. PMOfficers are the only ones among their competitors that concentrate mainly on functions, types, frameworks, and many other PMO aspects that may not be covered in any certification body. PMOfficers offers a digital certificate based on Blockchain technology. It ensures the legality, transparency, and democratization of vocational training to lead a Projects and Products Office - PMO.

PMOfficers provides three specific certifications for a PMOfficer and six specialization certifications PMO-BR, PMO-SK, PMO-DT, PSO.PM2, PMO-IG, PMO-CY

• Organization: PMOfficers
• Format: PMOAcademy Synchronicity Learning Model
• Prices (roadmap for focused to reach the role of PMOfficer)
  • Foundation Level: PMO-Foundation 199e
  • Practitioner Level: PMO-Strategic Roadmap 299e
  • Professional Level: PMO- Setup 499e
• Requirements:
  • PMO-FO (PMO Fundamentals): Knowledge in project or product management or PMO member in any role.
  • PMO-SR (PMO Strategic Roadmap): Practitioner level with +5 years of experience in project or product management, and should have certified PMO-FO approved the PMO-FO.
  • PMO-ST (PMO Setup): Specialist level with +10 years of experience and leading a Portfolio of Projects and Products or has led a PMO, preferably should have certified in PMO-SR.

• Foundation Level Specialization Workshops:
  • PMO-BR (PMO BIRISI): Practitioner level +3 years of experience in project or product management focused on optimizing the categorization and prioritization of a Portfolio of projects and products (PMO).
  • PMO-SK (PMO Soft Skills): Knowledge in project or product management or current PMO member in any role.
• Practitioner Level Specialization Workshops:
  • PMO-IG (PMO Engineering): Specialist level with +10 years of experience as Director of Civil Works or Engineering Projects and who preferably has previously approved the PMO-FO.
• Professional Level Specialization Workshops:
  • PMO-DT (PMO Digital Transformation): Specialist level WITH +5 years of experience who is currently leading a Digital Transformation Project, Project Director or has led a PMO and who preferably has previously approved the PMO-SR.
  • PSO-PM2 (Project Support Office under PM2 methodology): Specialist level WITH +5 years of experience who is currently participating or leading European H2020 or Next Generation Projects, Project Director or has led a PMO in any industry and preferably has previously approved the PMO-FO.
  • PMO-CY (PMO Cybersecurity): Specialist level with +3 years of experience as CISO and who preferably has previously approved the PMO-FO.
• Language: Spanish and English

The PMO GLOBAL ALLIANCE was founded in 2014. It is the first global community to focus on Project Management Offices. It was created by Brazilian PMO leaders who wanted to exchange experiences and knowledge to achieve better results in their PMOs. The PMO VALUE RING methodology was developed in 2014 to structure or redesign PMOs with a focus on value creation, and in 2016 they launch the PMO-CP and PMO-CC certifications that ensure that people will fully master the concepts and PMO Value Ring methodology.

• Organization: PMO Global Alliance
• Price: 600 USD Online and Face-to-Face Format Spain
• Requirements: PMO professionals of any level.
• Language: Portuguese / English / Spanish

Wellingtone was established in the UK in 2001. It works with organizations of all sizes. They are the only global organization worldwide organizations that are Microsoft Gold Partner with PPM, AXELOS P3M3 consulting partner, and an APM accredited training provider. Wellingtone has authored training courses that APM has independently accredited. The PMO certifications provided by Wellingtone cover the detailed aspects of the PMO context for successful implementation and are delegated to the Wellingtone PMO maturity model and competency framework. Wellingtone offers two certifications: An Accredited PMO Practitioner, and the other is an Accredited Assurance Practitioner.

• Organization: Wellingtone
• Price: £ 595 APM Accreditation Course Practitioner level PMO Online Format
• Requirements: Not available
• Language: English / Spanish

Other PMO certifications

Other organizations are preparing their own versions of certifications for a PMO, but all those mentioned in this article are the most popular within the profession that add much more value to people and organizations. As the PMOfficer Authorised trainer and professional PMO-Project Manager, I always do a detailed analysis of all the certifications in the market; therefore, this analysis includes all the accreditation bodies, all their certificates related to the PMO, and the cost. Thus, in the end, each professional and organization will decide which one they consider most profitable.

Author's Note: The price mentioned in the above table is only meant for guidance and information. The sources of the data are taken from various organization's commercial sources. Under no circumstances am I responsible if anyone decides to take it as an exact reference; In any case, all interested persons must contact each organization directly to validate any type of offers and updated prices from January 2021 onwards.

Conclusions

I do not deny that certification can broaden knowledge and further polish people with relevant skills in organizations with a PMO. The article is designed to provide guidance and reference to all professionals who need to find a path of evolution to lead a project and product office such as PMOfficer The information is based on various market research with the cost of all certifications related to a PMO. However, each provider may have a price update while reading this article, so I recommend that you validate the costs directly with each one from them.

Bibliography and final comments by the author

The views expressed in this article are my own. The article is based on my personal opinions and experience. My objective is to share with the entire community who seek to evolve in the profession and exploring various relevant certifications to successfully lead the Project Office and Products in the current evolving times.

This article I wrote in collaboration with my good friend and founder of PMOfficers Leonardo Reyes Torres

Below given are some of the key abbreviations relating to PMO, Project, and Products.

• PMO = Project & Product Management Office
• VMO = Value Management Office
• AVMO = Agile Value Management Office
• APMO = Agile Product Management Office
• AMO = Agile Management Office
• PSO = Project Support Office
• OTP = Technical Office of Projects
• OVGO = Oriented Value Agile Office