PROGRAMME MANAGEMENT

Abstract

Program management may be defined as the co-ordinated management of a group of related projects to ensure the best use of resources in delivering the projects to the specified time, cost and quality/performance criteria. Different organizations have different definitions for the role of the program manager or portfolio manager. It is the responsibility of the program manager to allocate these resources in the most cost-effective manner taking into consideration the various project milestones and deadlines as well as the usual cost restrictions. The program manager in such an organization has to ensure that the project fits into the corporate strategy and has to ensure that established project management procedures starting with the business case and ending with disposal are employed. Program management can, however, mean more than co-ordinating a number of related projects. Portfolio management, which can be regarded as a subset of corporate management, is very similar to program management, but the projects in the program manager's portfolio are not necessarily related other than being performed by the same organization.