Delivering transformational initiatives requires discipline and diligence from structured management methodology, a process that is often misinterpreted.
While this is one interpretation, it does not do justice to the discipline. Worse, it may result in a business selecting the wrong capabilities for leading the program. A competent Program Manager or Director is not necessarily a good Project Manager. The skills and capabilities for each role are different.
Typically, but not always, a program is built around a set of interrelated projects supporting a business domain, for example, Supply Chain or Merchandise. The program will have a supporting business case and, in all likelihood, will result in Business and IT transformation.
Key features of a program that require program management include:
- Scale – Commercial, Business benefits and size of resources managed.
- Transformation – IT and Business will require changing their ways of working, structures, and methods of supporting the new systems.
- Interrelated projects – A project ecosystem with dependencies that impact the sequence of delivery. This drives complexity in planning and managing the delivery of the program.
- Governance – Scale and impact will require an understanding and skillset that is capable of dealing with C-Suite stakeholders as well as project team worker
- Communication – Large-scale transformations will require careful communication to diverse audiences from both Business and Support functions such as Finance, Human Resources, and IT.
- Change Management – Transformation requires changes to ways of working and behaviours at all levels within the affected functions.
Program Management is the discipline that assembles these features of a program into a framework that enables delivery of transformation. This includes:
- Governance
- Stakeholder management
- Commercial management
- Risk and issue management
- Deployment methodology
- Resource management
- Change management
- Benefits realization
Why is it important for your business?
If you are embarking on a transformation, it is essential that you understand what managing a program of work entails. Setting your program up correctly and having the relevant experience and capabilities to hand will mitigate many of the risks associated with delivering large Business and IT transformations. CMG can help. Get in touch with the team today by emailing [email protected].
