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What is Program Management?

What is Program Management?

Hydra Management Ltd, a leading provider of Program Management software and services has announced their initial findings from the Hydra Management Program Management Survey. The survey examined what the term "program management" means to executives from software houses and other contracting organisations who manage more complex and multiple 'external' projects that create outputs which will be handed over to a customer. The survey's main findings were:

• 67% Believe program management is the management of organisational change through projects that bring about change and that this nearly always involves benefits management.
• 37% Believe program management means the management of multiple projects regardless of the purpose of the projects.
• 48% Believe portfolio management is the management of multiple projects regardless of the purpose of the projects.
• 82% Believe project management is the management of a single project.
• 91% Believe project management software helps them to manage their projects.
• Only 56% possess program (multi-project) management software to manage their projects.
• 83% Are planning to implement program management software tools in the near future.

The results of the survey demonstrated four common definitions of organisations:

The Strategically Driven Organisation

Strategically driven organisations follow The Office of Government Commerce's definition of Program Management, 'the co-ordinated management of a portfolio of projects to achieve a set of business objectives'. These companies define their long-term objectives by outlining a company vision, compare that vision with current realities and define a gap. All programmes and projects are then designed to appropriately bridge this gap. Benefits pursued may be financial and non-financial. Program management in this context must focus on delivering the benefits expected as defined by its strategy.

The Multi-Project Income Driven Organisation

These organisations believe program management is the directing of a portfolio of projects, which benefit from a consolidated approach, maximising the way resources are utilised on income generating work. The common elements of their projects are that they run simultaneously, and may overlap; they share resources, and are supposed to generate some income. One project being cancelled does not necessarily change the organisations general direction. The primary aim is to manage the program of projects to get the maximum income for every person in the pool.

'We Have Still to Figure it Out' Organisation

These organisations believe program management is a co-ordinated approach that applies a common method, lifecycle and set of standards to improve the capability of the project management community. The projects in this program have very little in common. In this situation the Program Management team might want to regard this as the first improvement step.

The Customer Centric Organisation

These organisations undertake the management of projects within their organisation for the same customer. Projects are probably not linked logically but almost certainly share the same resources. They may be carried out by different teams within the contracting organisation but probably share the same functional departments. Great ideas from one group get carried over to the other groups. Specialists work part time on all projects. The focus here is similar to the first scenario (the OGC definition) but Programme Management will concentrate on the Customer's goals not those of their own organisation.

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