Strategic Alliance: Building Better Programs

Ian Whittingham, PMP is director of Calixo Consulting, providing project and program management expertise from initiation through to implementation, covering business transformation, workflow process re-engineering, and enterprise data integration. He is a regular contributor to ProjectManagement.com. You may contact Ian directly at [email protected].

  Governance   Program Management   Strategy  

Project managers understand what is required of them to deliver their projects. They know what the objectives are and how success will be measured. Some are even aware of the larger programs to which their projects contribute. At the very least, they usually know the name of the program, and sometimes have some idea of its purpose. But while they may know what a successful project looks like, how many of them are able to recognize what a successful program ought to look like?

Compare the following declarative statements. One is verbose, the other terse. Both affirm the strategic imperatives of the organizations making them. If you were asked to design and deliver a program to realize either of these strategies, which statement would be most helpful to you?

1. We are an active and leading contributor to peace and security on the international stage. We promote democratic values and are committed to the peaceful resolution of disputes. However, if diplomatic efforts fail, we have the military capacity needed to undertake crisis-management operations, alone or in cooperation with other countries and international organisations. Through our crisis-management operations, we demonstrate both our willingness to act as a positive force for change and our capacity to meet the security challenges of the 21st century.
2. Our purpose is to keep the Americans in, the Russians…

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