Project and Programme Management
“Project Manager” and “Programme Manager” are sophisticated management roles that require a mix of many qualifications and skills – including negotiation, communication, leadership, presentation, planning, scheduling, risk management and the ability to perform under stress.
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What is Project Management?
Project management offers a framework to help organisations transform their day-to-day operations and service performance. It is viewed as a way of organising for the future. Moreover, in an increasingly busy, stressful, and uncertain world it has become necessary to manage several projects successfully at the same time. There has been rapid development in the role of the project manager, away from simply planning and reporting of progress using spreadsheets and complicated project management software, into someone whose style and approach is focused on the management, processes and the overall business value of a project.
What is Programme Management?
A programme is made up of a specific set of projects identified by an organisation that together will deliver some defined objective, or set of objectives, for the organisation. The objectives, or goals, of the programme are typically at a strategic level such that the organisation can achieve benefits and improvements in its business operation. The ability to break this change into clearly defined individual projects, with well understood interdependencies is a highly sought after skill.
What do they have in common and how do they differ?
Both Programme and Project Management involve coordinating various components and people. Some people believe that Programme Management is an older sibling of Project Management, but in fact they require different viewpoints, some different skills and, therefore, different training.
Most specialists seem to agree that Programmes are vision led, typically consisting of inter-related Projects whereas Projects are process led with a defined output. Programmes are usually strategically more important than projects, although not all are strategic. They tend to have a higher profile. A project has a business core, which is the anticipated benefit – usually it is achieved after the project is finished.
The key difference is that Programme Management ensures changes are made in the operational environment, so that changes can be made by Projects.
