In the software development world, there is a distinction between Program and Project Managers.
What I have found is that program managers have expertise in "programming", that they come from the ranks of developers and into management.
My company went dot bomb in early Nov., and with 5 years of web development project management experience (8 yrs PM total), I am seen by some companies here in the Seattle area as too qualified for a project manager position but underqualified for a program manager position.
Any suggestions as to how to ramp up technically in a short amount of time or suggested counter-arguements for the next time I face the "a little light on the technical side" comment are greatly appreciated. The Standish Group's 5 needs of a pm will help. :-) Saving Changes...
I am currently a student studying my final year of my Computer studies degree in England, One of my modules is Managing computer system projects. I have to write a report / paper discussing the difference between project management and programme management, so i thought having a look at peoples opinions on this forum might help me to get an insight into the subject and will help me understand the question better and conclude an answer, i have to say i honestly thought that the answer would have been black and white, after reading the opinions off this forum i am even more confused than before, ( and i was pritty confused then !!!) Saving Changes...
From my experience in running a Project Management Office, here's what I think of it all.
Project Management - concerned with managing and implementing a single project, and reporting milestones, changes and escalated issues to Program Mgt and other impacted parties.
Program Mgt takes a cross project view (looking across multiple related or non-related projects). Program Mgt reports to stakeholders (especially external - and manage the external communications process) on progress etc, and also sets the stall in how project mgt is conducted (methods, tools etc). They should also manage cross-projects changes and impact analyses to ensure within project changes do not have a negative impact on business strategy focus/approach. They should also look after resource pools (same resources used on multiple projects).
Hope that helps.
Saving Changes...
Anonymous
Sid,
I think the reason for your confusion is that the bottom line answer to the question "What's the difference between Project and Program Management?" is "It varies." It varies depending on industry, company size, company organization, management infrastructure, and the personalities, strengths, and weaknesses of the people involved.
The bulk of my recent experience is in Engineering organizations at small to medium sized software companies that haven't adopted significant formal company-wide practices or methodologies. In that environment:
Project Managers typically manage down. They're responsible for the software components of one or more releases of one or more software products. They may be responsible only for Development or also for QA and/or Documentation for those releases. They tend to be tactical. Their background is usually technical. They're in the Engineering organization. The engineers working on their products either report directly to them or to someone else in the Engineering organization.
Program Managers manage sideways and up. They're responsible for all non-Engineering aspects of all releases of one or more products. They work with the Project Manager, Product Manager (often a Marketing role), Manufacturing, and other organizations. Their role often involves coordinating among different organizations and a lot of picking up of loose ends. They need strong communication and organizational skills, and enough of a technical background that they can understand the product at a high level, but they don't need to be former programmers. They usually report to either Engineering or Marketing. They typically don't have direct reports.
In my experience, the line dividing the day-to-day responsibilities of the Program Manager from those of the Project Manager is blurry. It often depends on the skills and interests of the people involved, as well as on the other factors mentioned earlier.
We are a large financial institution who employ program managers. These program managers are responsible for deliverables across the group. For each deliverable he/she may employ/contract project managers to co-ordinate resources and activities required for a particular delivery. Saving Changes...
I reckon what you have to look at is essentially the difference between programme and project. Once that is established, you know what the manager for each of these should focus on. The results do indeed vary by organisation, maturity and individual strengths and so on, but the fundamentals are the same.
If you come from the perspective, as we do, that programme is a collection of (possibly related) projects with a common business benefit or objective, and that a project is the controlled set of activities to deliver a component towards that ultimate objective, then you have, as has been mentioned above, that project managers' focus is tactical, while programme managers' focus is strategic.
The programme manager is responsible for coordinating the delivery (and managing the gaps and overlaps, budgets and costs) between the affiliated projects. The project manager is responsible for the delivery and costs of the project(s) s/he is assigned.
Note that neither the PgM nor the PjM should be accountable for these deliveries. This should fall to the sponsor of the programme or project. The programme sponsor has almost invariably got to be the sponsor of each of the related projects.
I'm currently getting my project management certification and what I understand is that in order for something to be a project, it has to meet certain criteria.
1)Scope 2)Cost 3)Schedule (definate start and end date) 4)Customer Satisfaction
I am currently working in an Healthcare recruiting agency that offered a position for a project coordinator, so I applied, wanted to get some real project experience. It wasn't until after i started that I realized that what I'm currently working on, are not 11 projects, but a program. I came to this conclusion because there is no schedule to these projects. There is no deadline. If you can't meet all 4 criteria, it can't be a project.
Am I correct? Saving Changes...
Rey MacalindongSenior Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist| BEST - Cardno Emerging MarketsCainta, Philippines
Yes. But if what you are currently doing is repetitive, no schedules to meet and no objectives to achieve, these may not qualify as program activities either. It is more of operations management - daily, routine, recurrent activities.
As defined by the other contributors in this discussion topic, program is made up of different projects. Program management is management of several projects (time, scope and resources). Program management also includes management of time, scope and resources - management of the triple constraint. But the fundamental differences between a project and program are the magnitude (size) and time frame (long term).
So, it does not follow that if what you are doing does'nt fall under project management, it is automatically program management. Saving Changes...
I have filled both the Project Manager and Program Manager roles and I think they are very different. Project Management is more focused on specific deliverables within a limited timeframe. You manage your team to get very specific things done. Program Management involves some of the same efforts as far as ensuring communication occurs across project teams, but it is more focused on helping to bubble up the interdependencies among projects and issues that affect more than one project. You also spend a great deal of time helping your leadership understand how the component projects relate and work together to achieve your strategic objectives. Saving Changes...
There is an excellent article by Joel Spolsky on what the "Program Manager" was supposed to doing at Microsoft. Its not just informative but I am sure you will enjoy reading it. The article is available at:
I am going to be writing job descriptions for two separate job families - project manager and program manager (and identifying the differences between the various levels/job grades - I, II, III, IV, V, and senior). To add to the complexity, we're also going to make a distinction between technical (R&D and IT) vs. non-technical managers. Can anyone refer me to some existing job descriptions for these two groups?
