From Project Management to Program Management

In the early-90, Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) introduced the position of Business Program Manager in their Professional Services Division. Corporate Senior Management explained that traditional project managers focused on the physical delivery of services and solutions without concern of profitability. In order to shift the focus of Project Managers from deliverable to project profit, business units were re-structured into industry groups known as Line of Business (LOB), and Senior Project Managers were re-titled as Business Program Managers ensuring project assignment contribute to overall profits in their assigned LOB of the Division.

In October, 2007, PMI introduced the Program Management Professional (PgMP) credential and defined a Program as “a group of related projects managed in a coordinated way to obtain benefits and control not available from managing them individually”.

In the UK, Office of Government Commerce (OGC) that developed PRINCE2 (Project in Controlled Environment: version 2) methodology explained in their Managing Successful Program manual that “Programs are different from projects in that it is their outcome that matter, not their outputs. Outputs are specified deliverables from projects that are delivered within time, cost and quality constraints. Outcomes are the effect of change and form the vision for the program.

The above explanations clearly identified the differences between programs and projects. Program is the by-product of a strategic planning process that aims to deliver the visions of a future goal (strategic outcomes) while projects are the various tactics in achieving such strategic objective. The roots of Program Management are project management technique and methodology. However, Program Management focuses on delivering benefits and new capability instead of deliverable.

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