A Program Manager is responsible for managing multiple interrelated projects and ensuring that - taken together - they produce specific business outcomes and benefits for an organization. The title "Program Manager" is not very common. Organizations have Project Managers, Product Managers, General Managers. But "Program Manager" is rare. This is because often executives and middle managers play the role of Program Manager even if they don't have the title. WHAT IS A PROGRAM AND HOW IS IT DIFFERENT FROM A PROJECT? According to the PMI PgMP standard, a program is a collection of interrelated components. Components can be sub-programs, projects, or other activities. Often these are components that span many functions, for example marketing, sales, engineering, design, finance. When these components are managed together under a program, they deliver value and benefits beyond the individual projects themselves (think: 1 + 1 + 1 > 3). The main difference between a Program and a Project is that projects create deliverables, whereas programs create benefits. The deliverables of a project are usually tangible: easily recognized and validated. The benefits of a program could be tangible (e.g. a specific product, process or result) or intangible (e.g. improved morale, better capabilities). EXAMPLES OF PROGRAMS Programs can come in many different forms. Here are some examples:
PGMP CERTIFICATION - IS IT WORTH IT? Whereas the PMI PMP designation is very popular in industry today, PgMP (Program Management Professional) designation is still very niche with less than 5,000 certified PgMPs worldwide. If you are preparing for the PgMP Exam, you need to review all your PMP learnings, and understand the new concepts that are foundational for a Program Manager. Program Management Professional (PgMP) Free Online Tests: Simplilearn PgMP Exam Prep Practice Test (170 questions) ITExams Program Management Professional v1.0 (PgMP) (455 questions) PMOAdvisory PgMP Practice Exam (10 questions) certlibrary Program Management Professional v1.0 (15 questions) ProcessExam PMI PgMP Certification Exam Sample Questions (10 questions) OTHER DIFFERENCES BETWEEN PROGRAMS AND PROJECTS PMI also distinguishes projects from programs along 3 dimensions:
HOW ARE PROGRAMS DIFFERENT FROM PORTFOLIOS? Programs are also different from portfolios. Portfolios is a strategic collection of components that meets some business objectives. Programs have a definite timeframe, portfolios are not initiated with a time frame in mind. A program can be long and the duration may not even be known upfront, but they are by nature temporary. Portfolio managers are typically directly involved in strategic decision making, whereas Program Managers will advise and provide input into strategy but will be mostly focused on turning strategy into reality by delivering business outcomes and benefits. RESPONSIBILITIES OF A PROGRAM MANAGER A Program Manager's responsibilities include:
A program manager is not focused on managing project managers and making sure they do their jobs. Program managers should focus on the benefits that are expected from the program and the risks to achieving those benefits, rather than on individual projects or specific aspects of the Scope, Cost, and Time equation for the program. Typically the biggest challenge in a matrix organization where different leads are reporting to different functional heads is COMMUNICATION. This will likely lead to issues while managing the integrations and interfaces across projects, where communication is most essential. In a matrix organization, the most important Program Management skill is therefore influencing without authority, getting others to contribute even if they are not your direct reports. PROGRAM LIFE CYCLE MANAGEMENT PgMP's methodology is summarized by the excellent graphic below from the PMI standard (see webinar Everything About PgMP). A lot of the focus is on Program Benefits Management, which is made up of 5 sub-parts: Benefits Identification, Benefits Analysis and Planning, Benefits Delivery, Benefits Transition, and Benefits Sustainment.  PROGRAM DEFINITION PHASE
The sequence of program definition:
PROGRAM STRATEGY ALIGNMENT The Business Case gives an idea about the high level goals of the program. SWOT analysis gives the positioning of the program with regard to its environment and the benefits realization plan outlines the benefits and the plan to realize them. The Program Manager is responsible to ensure that the program maintains alignment with the organization's strategy. Even if a new proposed project makes business sense, this needs to be validated with the program board, which represents the interest of the organization, to ensure aligned with the latest strategy of the company If program board can't make a strategic decision because they are undecided or split, the program sponsor makes the decision. The governance board is not a consensus committee, but the program sponsor normally has veto powers. PROGRAM CHARTER The purpose of a Program Charter is to formally authorizes a program and secure senior management buy in to apply organizational resources to it The first step is to identify a sponsor who can provide resources and champion the program within the organization. Without the firm backing of the sponsor, even the best articulated business cases backed up with the best resources and proposals can fail to take off. Program Charter can be used:
Components that are initiated should contribute to the benefits. This should be the primary concern of the program manager in the benefits delivery phase. While issuing the charters for the components, he most important consideration for the program manager is to make sure that the components that are being initiated are contributing to the benefits that the program is expected to deliver. PROGRAM GOVERNANCE The governance plan is about how the program will be administered and governed. It includes:
You are preparing for a meeting of your Governance Board. This meeting is a decision point review based on the need to confirm stakeholder satisfaction with current performance PROGRAM MANAGEMENT PLAN The program management plan is a high-level plan that provides guidance and direction to individual project management plans but does not necessarily contain all the project management plans as subsidiaries. It has subsidiaries such as Benefits Management Plan, Governance plan, and Stakeholder Engagement Plan. Baseline program management plan represents the agreement between the program and its stakeholders about what the program will deliver. Program ARCHITECTURE establishes the correlation between the components and how they contribute to the benefits he program architecture defines the structure of the components by identifying the relationships among the components and the rules that govern their inclusion The program FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT PLAN documents funding schedules, initial budgets, contract payments and financial metrics. The benefits register provides the list of planned benefits and target dates and milestones for benefits achievement. Together, these documents can provide the information necessary for due diligence. Project level change management focuses on preserving the ability to fulfill requirements, whereas program level change management focuses on preserving the ability to deliver benefits. Now, you have a new program management plan in place. Your next step is to update the roadmap. TOOLS The Work Authorization System helps to ensure that only the planned and essential work is being performed at any given point in time. During budget cuts, it allows the PgM to exercise better control over the expenses of the program The Information Management System is to make sure that the information required by the stakeholders of the program is being made available to them in time, and in the format and medium that they prefer to receive it. PROGRAM OFFICE, PROGRAM MANAGEMENT OFFICE The Program Management Office is a company-wide center of excellence for program management in an organization. It provides guidance and mentorship to the program managers in an organization. It also maintains guidelines, best practices, templates and historical information for an organization. The Program Office is an administrative support to program managers and program management teams. The Program Management Office focuses on developing and fostering program management expertise, maintaining best practices, and mentoring and guiding program managers. When a new PM starts planning, The best place to start is to refer to historical records (PMI places a lot of emphasis on this) and seek guidance from the Program Management Office The sponsor authorizes a component of the program and funds it. The Executives authorize the sponsor and the program board. The portfolio manager is responsible for managing a portfolio. The program management office plays a supporting role to a program and does get into decision making or authorization. BENEFITS REALIZATION PLAN benefits register or benefits realization plan can include KPIs and thresholds for measuring benefit achievement Benefits management: The program manager identifies benefits, plans for them and ensures that the program takes steps to realize, monitor and transition the benefits. Benefits identification: Determine benefits, evaluate benefits, and setting up metrics to measure benefits ensure that the benefits from a program are indeed being realized: planning specific activities for benefits realization, then monitoring and tracking benefits delivery BENEFITS DELIVERY During benefits delivery, a PgM will be
benefits register for use on your program. You decide to review it with your key stakeholders to—Define and approve key performance indicators the primary purpose of the program transition phase is to address the transfer of benefits into organizational operations. This may involve transfer of resources, assets, and other benefits. CHANGE MANAGEMENT AND INTEGRATION MANAGEMENT According to this post, there will be around 12 to 15 questions relating to Program Change Management and Program Integration Management in the Exam. In order to answer these questions correctly, please remember the following steps and they are performed sequentially:
SCOPE Program Scope Management Plan = To determine how the scope of the overall program will be managed The program scope management plan does not contain the actual scope of the program; rather it explains how the scope of the overall program will be managed. PWBS = breakup of the program deliverables into smaller units Work packages contained within all the components of the program Key activities and milestones within the program The breakup of the program deliverables into smaller units A detailed description of all the program packages which are in scope Explanations: Answer: c) The PWBS is "deliverables based", which rules out option B. It does not contain all the work packages it only goes up to a level of granularity that the program manager wants to manage at. The PWBS does not contain the description of the program packages. It merely breaks up the program deliverables into smaller, more manageable units. preparation of the PWBS should ideally involve the teams, along with the program and project managers because it creates a buy in from the team. program scope statement has been finalized, the distribution of work among various components has been determined and the program WBS has been created. After that, Determine the schedule, cost, and resource requirements and the implications on risk and quality. The PWBS is created at a relatively high level so that the program manager can manage at a fairly high level. It must include all the work in the program at a high level, not just the work performed on the projects. During Validate Scope, The program manager should provide oversight and guidance about the scope. The program manager should ensure that the deliverables produced by the projects can contribute to the creation of benefits for the customers of the program. key words are "oversight and guidance" and "creation of benefits". The program manager will let the projects determine the way the activities are conducted, but focus more on providing guidance and ensuring that the benefits are realized. The program manager needs to integrate the project deliverables in order to deliver the benefits to the organization. Validate scope at the project level refers to the final acceptance tests for the projects. Here, the program manager needs to make sure that the deliverables enable the program to deliver the intended benefits. QUALITY MANAGEMENT The program's role in quality is to determine policies and standards that can be applicable to multiple components. The adherence to ISO standards is an example. Program level quality planning is to provide guidelines and policies and set up governance frameworks around quality. Quality is not simply delegating to the PMs on their projects. If an integration test between the outputs of two projects failed and both PMs are adament that it is not their fault. Try an Ishiwaka diagram because the first step is to get to the ROOT CAUSE. When transitioning to operations, if ops staff have not been adequately trained, then hold off on the transition so as not to pass on low quality to customers. Program level quality plan focuses on integration testing ZERO DEFECTS is a quality approach establishing what the customer wants and providing it the first time without waste or having to repeat work. In a scenario where the devices are lifesaving this is the approach to take. KAIZEN is about proactively continuously trying to improve as an organization. For programs that are already into operations and mature, Kaizen is least intrusive and at the same time provides for the possibility of continuous, incremental improvements. If a Project Manager tells a PgM about a major qualtiy issue just before launch, the PM is responsible. According to the principle of total quality management, the management and not the worker is responsible for quality. The program manager in consultation with the program board and project manager must determine what to do. RESOURCE MANAGEMENT In HR resource planning, PgM plays most attention to RESOURCE LEVELLING. One of the ways in which program managers provide additional benefits and control is by ensuring that the resources are shared and their utilization across projects is optimized. Especially for the critical resources, this is what the program manager will focus on. In planning for resources the program manager should be most concerned about Making sure that the existing resources are being utilized optimally across the program management plan. Project managers make sure that the resources with the right skill set are available at the right time for their project. Resources that are shared by multiple projects can be managed at the program level, dedicated resources can be managed by projects. Program manager can add value by ensuring optimal utilization, assignment and prioritization of shared resources. In a matrix organization, if VP pulls the resources unexpectedly, seek senior management intervention by approaching the program sponsor. As a program manager, once your team is in place you need to focus on—Promoting integrity in all interactions. Other things like reward and recognition, mentoring, role modeling are done by PMs. RISKS AND OPPORTUNITIES The risk identification process ideally should involve everybody associated with a program. Hence choose the broadest possible answer, which in this case is D. The monitoring of the project level risks should be done by the project manager. The program manager should step in only when a risk gets escalated or crosses a threshold, or as requested by the project manager. NOT on a regular basis. Risk/opportunity response strategies: - exploit (e.g. opportunity for a cost savings, deploy extra resources to seize the opp) - enhance (e.g. we have an opportunity and we are trying to increase the size of the opportunity through marketing efforts) If a team members' suggestion to exploit or enhance is in line with the intended benefits of the program then it must be considered. Treat as a potential change request and based on merit, recommend inclusion of a marketing campaign to the program board. Pareto analysis is used to prioritize and not really useful in the initial identification. Ishikawa diagrams are used to uncover root causes and may hint at some risks, but will not really give rise to a lot of them. Mind map is a technique used to organize the thoughts in a systematic manner. It might also help in risk identification, but the technique that will probably result in the biggest bang for the buck in terms of number of risks uncovered would be the Delphi technique. he program manager must advocate a proactive approach towards risk management. Management reserves should be set aside for unknown risks. if the opportunity exists both for the company and a partner, then use the SHARE (rather than exploit, enhance, etc.) The program level contingency reserves should be used for program level risks, not to cover unknown unknowns at project level. BUDGET The earned value method measures the utilization of budget against the actual work done and provides a holistic view to the program manager. These reports will be most helpful for the program manager to keep tabs on the budget utilization and progress. Earned value for overall program is the sum of EV of all projects COMMUNICATION to enhance and enable communications on a distributed team: Provide for high travel budget to have more face-to-face communication Leverage technology such as instant messaging, video conferencing and team wikis Cultural sensitivity training for everybody on the program MONITOR&CONTROL Throughout the program, it is especially important to monitor and control program changes. It is helpful to-- a) Conduct impact assessments CLOSING closure processes order: Component closure, Program Procurement closure, Program transition and benefits sustainment, Program Financial Closure, Program closure When nearing program closure: approve closure and transition of components, close contracts, perform financial closure, plan for benefits transition and SUSTAINMENT and create lessons learned. Lessons learned for overall program: attendees should include Program manager, project managers, PMO representative, selected stakeholders. PMO can be a NEUTRAL FACILITATOR. Don't have all stakehdolersa nd team members, it shoudl be a representative sample. MISC There is no information provided here about how the construction work is linked to strategic business objectives, hence it cannot be considered a portfolio. Construction is typically a time bound activity, so it is not an operation. There is no information in the question about whether the activities (components) are being managed in a coordinated way to obtain additional benefits and control. Hence from the available information, this seems like a large project with multiple subprojects. Research project = coarse estimate and rolling wave. n an environment where there is a great degree of uncertainty, it is good to use a rolling wave planning approach If Project B depends on Project A, it is an EXTERNAL dependency for B lag = time gap between two activities CPI or SPI < 1 is bad. > 1 is good. Work with the project managers to identify the critical path for the program a project-level CR with impact on funding requirements and time line needs to go to the Program Governance Board To determine roadmap of strategic program, planning must be done face-to-face with stakeholders e.g. brainstorming. When trying to implement a major change that is likely to meet resistance, start with a PILOT group and demonstrate success to the wider org. Rather than a communication campaign or top-down push to get all departments to change at once. Smoothing refers to trying to reduce the temperature of the conflict to buy time so that a better solution may be found. If the two parties to the conflict are aggressive it is the first thing to do before moving to other techniques like collaboration or compromise. For any project-level CR, assuming all processes are followed by the PMM, a PgM's biggest concern should always be about the impact of the change on other components. When undergoing a significant budget cut, the PgM can use ZERO BASE budgeting technique where each item of budget has to be justified afresh. For an established company looking to significantly increase its sales, the program manager should start with a SWOT analysis to understand what opportunities can be identified and how the organization can be positioned to take advantage of them. He could also review sales data, explore new markets, and talk to marketing, however the first thing to do is the SWOT to understand the situation. If a company is looking to exit some businesses, we say it's looking to "rationalize the portfolio". Start by Undertaking a review of the portfolio and the competitive positioning of the company Learn: backward integration, forward integration, concentric diversification
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |