Page 40 - Organizational Project Management

Chapter 4—The Organizational Project Management Processes

or they may see Project Management as a subset of Program Management.
In addition, some organizations may not have any such programs, only proj-
ects.
It is essential to be clear how the word “program” is being defined. In
the context of OPM3, a program is a group of related projects managed in
a coordinated way to obtain benefits and control not available from man-
aging them individually. Programs may include elements of related work
outside of the scope of the discrete projects in the program. Program man-
agement is the centralized, coordinated management of a program to
achieve the program’s strategic objectives and benefits.
The linking of Program Management to ongoing operations positions
it as more inclusive than Project Management, and indicates a greater
involvement with the general management of an organization and other
management disciplines. The program’s focus is on producing, in accor-
dance with a vision of an “end state” consistent with organizational strategic
objectives. Program Management has two major attributes that differen-
tiate it from Project Management: (1) Multi-project management and (2)
Elements of ongoing operations, such as post-deployment management of
the products and services produced and deployed by the program. Program
Management is, then, an extension in scope beyond the temporary under-
takings inherent in Project Management, since Program Management may
include the entire product life cycle considerations such as upgrades or
additional releases.
In the multi-project context, there is a shared set of common business
objectives or an expectation of benefits from coordinated management. Pro-
gram Management is often the source of the chartering of new projects to
achieve these objectives or benefits. In other words, the projects that com-
prise Program Management deliver or deploy products and services to oper-
ational use, and those projects undergo project closure while the program
continues. The program may initiate new projects to address requirements
associated with those deployed products and services.
Ongoing operations may include several reoccurring or administrative
functions that are the responsibility of the program, such as supplier rela-
tionship management and equipment maintenance. Other examples include
the ongoing support and enhancement of the products and services pro-
duced by the program, or the ongoing activity of monitoring and ensuring
the benefits expected of the program.
In many cases, programs produce products, services, or groups of prod-
ucts or services, for which the program must also provide ongoing main-
tenance and support. In such cases, the life of a Program Management
organization may span many years, from the initiation of specific projects
through the retirement and disposal of the resulting products and services
from operational use. Program end is associated with the end of user own-
ership and use, when the organization is no longer expected to respond
to issues, or when the responsibility for the products and services that
resulted from its projects is transferred to another party. In some cases, this
transfer may occur within the larger organization of which the program is
a part.
Some of the key activities that are essential to Program Management
from an organizational project management point of view include the fol-
lowing (see Appendix I for additional details):

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