Programme and Portfolio Management (MSP and PfMP Concepts)

Programme and Portfolio Management (MSP and PfMP Concepts) is a 5-day senior course on multi-project delivery, delivered by Mars Training Centre UK in London, Dubai, Vienna, Madrid, and Amman — designed for programme managers, portfolio leads, and PMO directors stepping above project-level work into the disciplines that connect projects to strategy.

When organisations have more good ideas than they can deliver, the answer is not more projects — it is better programme and portfolio management. Programmes group related projects to deliver coordinated benefits. Portfolios decide which projects deserve scarce resources in the first place. Both disciplines look different from project management, and require different governance, different metrics, and different leadership behaviour.

Across five focused days, you will work through the core concepts behind Managing Successful Programmes (MSP) and the Portfolio Management Professional (PfMP) credentials, applied to UK, European, and Middle East programme contexts. The course gives you the senior vocabulary and tools; it does not award the MSP or PfMP credentials themselves, which are administered by their respective bodies.

The week opens with the three levels of delivery — project, programme, and portfolio — moves into the programme lifecycle drawn from MSP concepts, then into benefits management and benefits mapping, then into portfolio management drawn from PfMP concepts, and closes with synthesis and a personal action plan.

What You Will Learn

By the end of this programme, you will be able to:

• Distinguish projects, programmes, and portfolios in the way senior governance demands.
• Apply the MSP programme management lifecycle to a real programme.
• Design benefits maps and benefits realisation plans that boards will sign off.
• Apply portfolio management principles to align projects with strategy.
• Build a portfolio prioritisation framework for capital-constrained environments.
• Design programme and portfolio governance that withstands assurance.
• Lead a portfolio review meeting at executive level.
• Diagnose the maturity of a programme or PMO using established models.
• Build a personal programme leadership development plan.

How You Will Benefit

You will leave with the senior vocabulary, tools, and frameworks of programme and portfolio management, and a Mars Certificate of Completion.

Your organisation will gain a delivery leader who connects projects to strategy, improves the consistency of benefits delivery, and brings discipline to the way resources are allocated across the portfolio.

Who This Programme Is For

This programme is designed for senior delivery and PMO leaders, including:

• Programme managers and senior programme managers
• Portfolio managers and heads of portfolio
• PMO directors, heads of PMO, and senior PMO managers
• Project directors moving towards portfolio responsibility
• Heads of transformation and change directors
• Public-sector senior responsible owners
• Strategy execution leaders and chief of staff roles supporting delivery

The seniority floor is senior project manager and above.