Program Management is the process of managing multiple ongoing inter-dependent projects. Management (covering theory practice and scope of management and Manager' (covering the people who manage might help clarify and systematise For all other uses see Project (disambiguation. A project, as defined in the field of Project management, consists of a temporary An example would be that of designing, manufacturing and providing support infrastructure for an automobile manufacturer. Infrastructure typically refers to the technical structures that support a society such as Roads Water supply, Wastewater, Power grids This requires hundreds, or even thousands, of separate projects. In an organization or enterprise, Program Management also reflects the emphasis on coordinating and prioritizing resources across projects, departments, and entities to ensure that resource contention is managed from a global focus.

The UK government, through the Office of Government Commerce, has invested heavily in program management (or programme management as it's known in the UK). Her Majesty's Government, or when the monarch is male His Majesty's Government, is the title used by the Government of the United Kingdom, based at The Office of Government Commerce (OGC is an independent office of Her Majesty's Treasury, a department of state in the government of the United Kingdom. In Europe, the term normally refers to multiple change projects: projects that are designed to deliver benefits to the host organization.

Program management provides a layer above project management focusing on selecting the best group of programs, defining them in terms of their constituent projects and providing an infrastructure where projects can be run successfully but leaving project management to the project management community. Project Management is the discipline of planning organizing and managing resources to bring about the successful completion of specific project goals and objectives

Program management responsibilities can vary. For instance, manufacturing program management responsibilities will be much different than program management responsibilities for a pharmaceutical trial and data collection program.

Contents 1 Key factors in program management 2 Differences from Project management 3 See also 4 References 5 External links

Key factors in program management

• Governance: The structure, process, and procedure to control operations and changes to performance objectives.

• Standards: Define the performance architecture.

• Alignment: The program must support higher level vision, goals and objectives.

• Assurance: Verify and validate the program, ensuring adherence to standards and alignment with the vision.

• Management: Ensure there are regular reviews, there is accountability, and that management of projects, stakeholders and suppliers is in place.

• Integration: Optimize performance across the program value chain, functionally and technically.

• Finances: Tracking of finances is an important part of Program management and basic costs together with wider costs of administering the program are all tracked.

• Infrastructure: Allocation of resources influences the cost and success of the program. Infrastructure might cover offices, version control, and IT.

• Planning: Develop the plan bringing together the information on projects, resources, timescales, monitoring and control. ^[1]

• Improvement: Continuously assess performance; research and develop new capabilities; and systemically apply learning and knowledge to the program.

Differences from Project management

A program (in business) is different from a project, in that:

1. A project is unique and is of definite duration. A program is ongoing and implemented within a business to consistently achieve certain results for the business.
2. Program Management includes activity to manage a business program and may include management of projects to step-wise improve program performance levels. The common definition of Program Management as the management of multiple projects is seen as short-sighted to the project management discipline.
3. In the course of achieving required results, business programs will normally understand related business constraints and determine the processes required to achieve results based on resources allocated. Improvement of processes is a continuous operation that very much contrasts a program from a project.
4. At the lowest level project managers co-ordinate individual projects. They are overseen by the Program Manager who accounts to the Program Sponsor (or board).

See also

• Project management
• Cost overrun
• List of project management topics

References

External links

• Program Management Methods
• The International Association of Project & Program Management
• APMG's Managing Successful Programmes site

Project Management is the discipline of planning organizing and managing resources to bring about the successful completion of specific project goals and objectives Cost overrun is defined as excess of actual Cost over Budget. A Aggregate planning Agile software development B C Constructability

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