Managing Successful Programmes: 5th Edition (MSP) Foundation

MSP is the go-to certification and guidance for programme managers, business change managers and the next step for project managers to develop their knowledge and skills to be able to positively respond to the challenges they face when managing programmes and larger, more strategic or multiple projects.

MSP is a globally recognised framework for best practice programme management. MSP is specifically designed to address the most common challenges that organizations encounter when leading investments in change. It is designed to align programmes and projects to organizational strategy and to provide governance. It focuses on the outcomes of benefit, whilst mitigating risks and actively engaging stakeholders.

MSP can be used in conjunction with all the other best-practice products (such as PRINCE2 and MoP) and international or internal organizational standards.

MSP 5th edition consists of a set of principles, themes and processes that provide a clear roadmap for the programme lifecycle and ensure successful organizational outcomes.

Using elements from QA’s ‘Performance Based Learning’ approach, we help you to not only know MSP, but also apply and tailor it for your programmes. The course has been designed by award winning instructional designers to ensure that it provides an interactive and engaging introduction to MSP. Our experienced MSP experts explain the method through a wide range of individual and group exercises, case-study application, learning ‘games’ and practice exam questions.

• Demonstrate an understanding of the various components of the MSP®5th Edition best practice programme management framework
• Describe each step of the MSP® journey, listing the activities required to guide a programme throughout its lifecycle
• Outline the relevant aspects of MSP® principles, themes and lifecycle in context

There are no pre-requisites for taking MSP 5th edition Foundation exam.

Target audience

Prince2 practitioners

• Evolve your skills to manage larger, more complex projects – MSP is the natural next step to develop your knowledge and skills to be able to respond to challenges and boost your career
• Adopt a wider strategic approach – The vision and target operating model allow you to see the “big picture” and link actions to the wider organizational strategy
• Be highly responsive to change – with its adoption of incremental approach to the programme lifecycle MSP empowers you to be adaptable, flexible and responsive to change

Project managers, Senior project managers

• Develop a strategic mindset - the vision, target operating model and programme plan allow you take a wider strategic view and co-ordinate multiple projects ensuring they are linked to corporate objectives.
• Be adaptable and choose the most appropriate delivery mode - MSP’s multimodal delivery mode allows multiple ways of working, based on what is most suitable for you when delivering the work and on the work itself.
• Take the next step with MSP – It is an industry-recognized certification which shows you can be trusted with responsibility for business change and major shifts in organizations.

Programme managers, Business change managers

• Gain more clarity within complex environments – MSP provides a clear route through complex programmes and encourages a strategic viewpoint to deliver outcomes and benefits, without getting distracted by operational issues. The framework is designed to be flexible and adaptable through the programme lifecycle.
• Build your capability to lead business change across the organization - in the strategic context i.e. from delivering outputs to enabling a vision through the principles and themes of MSP which ensure that there is a continual focus on co-ordinating multiple projects to the agreed strategic outcomes.
• Supporting organizational agility – by adopting a multimodal delivery philosophy and emphasizing an incremental approach, MSP enables organizations to be agile, responsive and flexible.

Organization, budget decision maker

• Align projects and programmes to organizational strategy - MSP aligns programmes and projects to organizational strategy; it provides governance and focuses on the outcome of benefits for the organization.
• Stay competitive and respond to industry change – Organizations need to continually improve their ability to change to be able to react to changes in the industry. MSP is specifically designed to address common challenges such as fixed deadlines and scarce resource that organizations encounter when leading investments in change.
• Rely on proven, successfully applied framework – MSP represents proven best practice in the successful delivery of organizational change through the application of programme management.

Course material

Learners undertaking this course will be provided with an eBook of the official course manual to support their learning, instructions on how to access the eBook will be provided with the course joining instructions.

Please note: For open book exams learners are permitted to use a second device to access the official course manual, the use of dual monitors is not permitted during the exam.

Please ensure you bring a device such as a mobile phone, tablet or laptop to be able to load your course material on to as you may need this for use in the evenings.

The course focuses on the components of the MSP framework and how they help to create outcomes of benefit while mitigating risks and actively engaging stakeholders.

MSP philosophy and structure

• What is a programme and how it differs to both business as usual and project work
• Relationship between the MSP principles, governance themes and the lifecycle

The 7 MSP Principles

• Lead with purpose
• Collaborate across boundaries
• Deal with ambiguity
• Align with priorities
• Deploy diverse skills
• Realize measurable benefits
• Bring pace and value.

The 7 governance themes

• Organization
• Design
• Justification
• Structure
• Knowledge
• Assurance
• Decisions

The 7 processes in the programme lifecycle

• Identify the programme
• Design the outcomes
• Plan progressive delivery
• Deliver the capabilities
• Embed the outcomes
• Evaluate new information
• Close the programme

MSP Foundation examination

PeopleCert exams take place remotely via PeopleCert Online Proctoring. You will be required to download and install ExamShield and conduct a compatibility test prior to sitting the exam.

You will schedule the exam yourself at a time that works best for you. We would highly recommend not leaving this too long after your course to ensure the best chance of information retention. If you decide to take your exam as soon as possible, please ensure that it is arranged no earlier than when your course has finished for that day at 17.30.

The foundation exam consists of;

• 60 multiple choice questions
• 1 hour
• Closed book
• Candidates require a minimum of 36 correct answers (60%) to pass