PMcrunch

What is program management?  How does program management differ from project management?  How does program management relate to project portfolio management (PPM)?  As program management is becoming more formalized in its own right, especially with the PMP’s PgMP certification, I thought I would see what is out there on the web to help answer these questions.

Here is my take on where program management comes in:

1. Where an initiative is strategic in nature, and it may, as part of the initiative, spawn several projects.
2. Where the initiative cuts across a broad cross section of the organization, requiring a breadth of management prowess, and requiring division into multiple interrelated projects.
3. Where the interdependencies among the projects relate to the ultimate strategic goal of the initiative.

So…here is a bit of a hodge-podge of recent posts that offer food for thought on the subject, and provide a little perspective into the world of program management, and the perceptions thereof.  Much more to come, as this is pretty minor.

Portfolio management vs Program management - I woke up this morning, suddenly thinking of project management. Don’t ask me why. Must be one of those weird days. I could not remember the differences between program and portfolio management all of a sudden. Started referring to some …

Q&A with Program Manager Intern Austin Lin - Personally I think it is a great fit for the Program Manager role at Microsoft. The moral of the story is that you don’t need to be a Computer Science major to explore opportunities at Microsoft. Q: Given program management is about …

Keep it simple… - With modern project management / program management tools such as Daptiv, and collaboration tools such as wikis and blogs, projects can be managed more transparently than ever before. By combining transparent project management, …

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John Reiling, PMP
Project Management Training Online