A program is a set of related projects and activities, managed in a coordinated fashion and under a structure that allows the delivery of outcomes and benefits.
This term is often thrown around in project management discussions and it’s a useful one to understand. It’s a way to tie together work that can be done by different teams, but which is important to the organization.
There are a variety of programs in an organization, and they can range from the simple to the very complex. These can be quite a challenge to manage and can require a lot of planning to achieve the right level of success.
The first step to managing a program is to determine the scope of the program. This means working out what it will deliver in terms of delivering a product or service to a customer. It also means looking at the business environment, understanding what the desired outcomes are and how they will be achieved.
Next, you need to identify the stakeholders. This involves identifying who is going to be affected by the changes that are being made. This is a big task that can be time consuming and requires the involvement of a number of people.
You’ll need to create a list of these stakeholders and their roles, and then use this to create an analysis that will help you understand what they need from the change. This can be a very detailed process, but it’s necessary to get all of this information down on paper before you can start working with them on the change itself.
Once you’ve gotten the information out of the way, then it’s time to create the program. You’ll need to put together a business case and a program charter, and then you’ll need to look at how the project fits in with the business objectives of the company.
It’s a fairly straight-forward thing to do, but it can be difficult to find the right balance between the project team and the senior leaders. The senior leaders will need to be very clear on their vision for the change, and if you’ve got the team behind this then it should be relatively easy to get everyone on board with the change.
However, if the people involved in the project have strong senior support and can’t see why the change is needed, then it might be more challenging to get them on board. This is because they might be afraid that they’re going to appear to be in opposition to the change, so they might resist it more than you’d like.
Another problem is that some of the projects might be so large and complex that they would require a whole separate program to manage them. These might include hardware, go to market, legal, finance, support, and tooling.
This can be a difficult task to do, but it’s worth it in the long run if you can get your stakeholders to buy into the idea of program management. Having a strong program team will ensure that the projects are delivered on time and in budget, without wasting any resources or money.