Organizations have many projects running concurrently. Ideally, they should function without interference, and each should realize an intended purpose, such as creating production efficiency, digital transformation, and market expansion. To ensure these functions happen smoothly, many businesses use program management.
Program management involves clustering related projects to realize common organizational objectives and goals. These projects are coordinated and handled simultaneously and usually share the same activities, resources, and stakeholders. An effective program management plan ensures all teams in various departments collaborate to realize the same organizational vision.
Importantly, program management differs from project management. While the former deals with a set of projects, the latter centers on individual projects. The major difference between the two is that program management is larger in scope than project management.
It focuses on a broader strategy than project management that involves realizing benefits and continuous improvement of all the organization’s projects. On the other hand, project management checks each project’s specific tasks, deadlines, and execution strategies needed to meet the overall business goals.
A program manager is a professional coordinating a company’s projects and strategic initiatives. They work from a high-level position where they view the entire program and strategically guide individual project managers to achieve its objective.
Besides coordinating various projects, the program manager reconciles the interdependencies among these projects. Moreover, they facilitate effective communications between all teams, define the program’s leadership, establish its budget, manage all risks involved in the program, supervise resource utilization, and align the deliverables to the project’s intended outcome.
Every organization has its definition of what entails effective program management. However, a few traits that most companies consider for program management to be effective. The first is consensus building. For instance, when a company wants to launch a new product, the program manager may direct project managers in production, marketing, and other related departments so that everyone participates in the product launch.
The second is attention to detail. Every program is tied to its budget, objectives, and deadlines. Therefore, to ensure that the program doesn’t exceed its budget, achieves its goals, and completes in the stipulated timeline, everyone involved should ensure they execute every specific task to perfection. A common way of paying such attention to detail is breaking a task into subtasks and ensuring one completes a subtask before proceeding to another.
The last is risk assessment. Program management should help detect threats before they arise or, at least, during their infancy so that they can be quelled. A common risk is a program exceeding its budget, thus, hurting other business processes that require funding.
Program management introduces flexibility and adaptability to align each project with the overall program’s goals. This happens by bringing the right personnel to solve any challenges affecting the program. For instance, a product launch team may invite IT professionals working on a related project to assist if the former’s digital strategy experiences any challenges.
Program management also helps in better resource management. Different projects compete for the same resources. For example, a social media team and the marketing department may require the ICT department’s personnel for tactical assistance. Here, program management aids in viewing the interdependencies and estimating their requirements. Interdependencies happen when two or more departments work together with the same resources towards a common goal.
