MONTHLY COLUMN

Program Management Commentary

DELIVERING THE WHOLE SOLUTION

By Russell Martinelli, Tim Rahschulte & James Waddell
Program Management Academy

Oregon, USA

Editor’s note:  This is the 4th article in a series on program management, program leadership and leading global program teams, by executive consultants at the Program Management Academy.  Based on their many years of experience in managing programs and projects at major technology organizations and on their books, Program Management for Improved Business Results and Leading Global Project Teams, Martinelli, Rahschulte and Waddell provide useful advice and perspective.  For more on the topic, see other articles in this series or contact the authors.

We discussed in our last column the importance of taking a top-down approach to program management where one begins with a firm’s business goals, and the strategies to achieve them as the hinge points for defining and managing a program.  Another key element to this approach is the process of defining and characterizing the whole solution to be delivered to the market.

PMI includes in their definition of a program that “programs may included elements of related work outside the scope of the discrete projects in the program.”  This statement is a subtle but very important part of the definition.  There is little misunderstanding that a program is made up of multiple, interdependent projects.  In our experience however, we find that people commonly fail to think beyond the multiple projects when defining, planning, and executing a program.  This is where thinking in terms of the whole solution can help.

The concept of the whole solution is not new.  It originated from the marketing discipline when Geoffrey A. Moore coined the term “The Whole Product” in his book Crossing the Chasm. He defined the whole product as the products and services that best meet the customer’s wants and needs. If we shift from a marketing focus to a product, service, or infrastructure development focus, the whole solution can be defined as “the integrated product solution that fulfills the customers’ expectation.” In other words, the defined solution must holistically meet all of the customer’s expectations. 

As many companies and organizations have learned, meeting the customer’s expectations becomes the means to achieve the strategic business goals of the firm.  If customers put a priority on receiving the whole solution, the concept then needs to be part of a company’s business strategy.

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About the Author Russ Martinelli Co-Author Russ Martinelli is  a co-founder of the Program Management Academy and co-author of Leading Global Project Teams and the comprehensive book on program management titled Program Management for Improved Business Results.  As a senior program manager at Intel Corporation, Russ has many years of experience leading global product development teams in both the aerospace and computing industries.  Russ can be contacted at russ.martinelli@programmanagement-academy.com

About the Author Tim Rahschulte Co-Author Tim Rahschulte is co-author of Leading Global Project Teams and an executive director at the Program Management Academy. Tim is also responsible for international management and leadership studies at George Fox University in Oregon.  He consults with state governments in the USA on matters of organizational change as a business transition architect.  Contact Tim at tim.rahschulte@programmanagement-academy.com.

About the Author Jim Waddell Co-Author Jim Waddell, former director of program management for Tektronix, is a co-founder of the Program Management Academy.  He is an experienced management consultant in his fields of expertise: program management, mergers and acquisitions. He has held a variety of management positions, has been a speaker at numerous conferences, and is a co-author of Leading Global Project Teams, and Program Management for Improved Business Results.  Jim can be contacted at jim.waddell@programmanagement-academy.com.

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