I'm not a fan of using subprojects, but would like to know what others think- are they useful?
James LovellProject Manager| Mercy Technology ServicesBallwin, Mo, United States
Subprojects are utilized by about 5% of the in-flight projects at my organization. In my experience, subprojects add another layer of complication and are better managed by a program-project approach. Often what people consider subprojects are actually tasks within a larger parent task. Am I missing something? Saving Changes...
I'd argue that subprojects will have the same downside as programs. If the overhead costs of putting in a hierarchy exceed the benefits of doing so, don't use them.
I think it depends on the scale, and the types of content.
I often work large projects which integrate many pieces of hardware and software, often purchased from a supplier. The integration of each piece of equipment is large enough that a technology team is running it as a project. An overarching PM would get involved at the integration layer, but there is simply not enough bandwidth to get involved with the details across potentially dozens of supplier development activities.
Another example is when a project includes technology development the helps run the PMO, rather than being part of the end product. A specialized team might develop some new system to be employed by the project team in support of their own engineering activities for example. That tool must be complete relatively early in the bigger project to support using it to complete work. To that team, the project runs its own course at a completely different pace than the larger project it supports.
There are some definite similarities to programs, and some sub-projects may shift to support other larger projects requiring program management, but large complex projects often require a division of labor among PMs where there are teams focused more on technical details, and others on the architectural or integration layer. Saving Changes...
Sergio Luis ConteHelping to create solutions for everyone| Worldwide based OrganizationsBuenos Aires, Argentina
I am in line with @Keith stated above. In my organization we use subprojects. Including it, those subprojects could be run with a different approach (for example, the main using waterfall life cycle while the subproject using iterative-incremental (Scrum framework for example). What is the criteria to use subprojects instead of programs? In our case, some of the things @Keith mentioned above. Saving Changes...
Wayne KremlingSr Project Manager - Retired| Boeing - RetiredSt. George, UT, United States
so we're working on establishing an integrated schedule for our large organization via SharePoint with the intent of being able to avoid over allocating our matrixed organization. It will take some coordination but we have limited resources supporting multiple projects so it will have a high benefit.
Each project's schedule will be tied in to the master schedule, and since we generally all use the same resources we'll be able to see the allocations and availability of each resource. Saving Changes...
I assume you are talking about scheduling (i.e. MS Project etc.). Can be useful in some cases, where a very large project has a lot of moving parts, AND there is enough distinction between different aspects of a project that they can be managed individually (with the PM being aware of cross-sub-project dependencies or you put them directly into your project schedules).
-Bob C. Saving Changes...
Jamie BorjaDirector, HRIS and Payroll| RefrescoFl, United States
At times I believe they are necessary within a program, especially for extra large projects like a company wide ERP upgrade whereby you ensure there is enough focus on vendor specific software involved or where you are introducing a substantial amount of change within a particular functional area for example. The challenge I find is linking the project plans together in such a way that if the program dates change, it is updated automatically downstream to the subproject plans vs manual intervention and risk of having multiple plans out of sync. Saving Changes...
Thomas WalentaGlobal Project Economy ExpertHackenheim, Germany
Subprojects can help structure complex projects and make them easier for all stakeholders to understand and implement. Subprojects should have defined interfaces and delegated responsibilities. Integration and balancing (resources, priorities) is still with the overall project manager.
Like projects, subprojects deliver products or components and at best can monitor predefined benefits that these products are expected to deliver. If you are more concerned about the benefits (vs deliverables), you should certainly look at program management, even for smaller or more simple initiatives.
