FEATURED PAPER

A Multi-Project Perspective on Program Management

By Alan Stretton, PhD

Sydney, Australia

Abstract

In an earlier paper in PM World Today, I discussed the great diversity of program management application areas, and the very wide dispersion of relevant literature. The current focus in the various program management literatures is on individual application areas, which tends to emphasize the particularities of the individual application area, and to discourage people from looking for lessons from other application areas. There is little current incentive to move towards a more holistic perspective on programs.

However, this paper suggests a possible way forward, via developing the most prominent common component of all programs, namely multi-project management. The paper first discusses multi-project management as a dominant common program characteristic, and points to the current under-representation of multi-project management in the project management literature. It then discusses indications of increasing interest in this topic, and the desirability of its further development.

This is followed by discussions of existing materials on multi-project management in the literature, starting with two generalized contributions, followed by substantial sections on multi-project internal and external interfaces management. A section on multi-project planning and control discusses multi-project resource allocation/management, scheduling, and budgeting, costing and financial control. Other multi-project-related topics discussed include multi-project risk management, stakeholder management/ engagement, communications management, managing complexity in the multi-project context, and multi-projects integrating mechanisms.

It is concluded that there are some grounds for believing that continuing and increasing interest in multi-project management may translate into much more research and experience-based contributions on the subject, for the benefit of all.

To read entire paper (click here)

About the Author Alan Stretton, PhD Author Alan Stretton is currently a member of the Faculty Corps of the University of Management and Technology, Arlington, Virginia, USA. In 2006 he retired from a position as Adjunct Professor of Project Management in the Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building at the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS), Australia, which he joined in 1988 to develop and deliver a Master of Project Management program. Prior to joining UTS, Mr. Stretton worked in the building and construction industries in Australia, New Zealand and the USA for some 38 years, which included the project management of construction, R&D, introduction of information and control systems, internal management education programs and organizational change projects. He has degrees in Civil Engineering (BE, Tasmania) and Mathematics (MA, Oxford), and an honorary PhD in strategy, programme and project management (ESC, Lille, France). Alan was Chairman of the Standards (PMBOK) Committee of the Project Management Institute from late 1989 to early 1992. He held a similar position with the Australian Institute of Project Management (AIPM), and was elected a Life Fellow of AIPM in 1996. He was a member of the Core Working Group in the development of the Australian National Competency Standards for Project Management. He has published over eighty professional articles. Alan can be contacted at alanailene@bigpond.com.au.