What are some of the most useful program management techniques and frameworks that you use or recommend?
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Program management is the practice of overseeing multiple interrelated projects and aligning them with a strategic goal. As a program manager, you need to use various techniques and frameworks to plan, coordinate, monitor, and control your program. In this article, we will discuss some of the most useful program management techniques and frameworks that you use or recommend.
Benefits management
Benefits management is a technique that helps you identify, quantify, and track the expected outcomes and benefits of your program. It also helps you align your program with the organizational vision, mission, and objectives. Benefits management involves defining the benefits, measuring the baseline and target values, assigning roles and responsibilities, and reviewing and reporting the progress.
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Benefits are key in getting buy-in from the important stakeholders of the program. Measuring and reporting the progress is a helpful tool to keep the stakeholder buy-in and trust as the program continues to run. It also provides insights into improvement opportunities and also identify when there is a need to sunset the program.
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Stakeholder engagement
Stakeholder engagement is a technique that helps you communicate and collaborate with the people who are affected by or have an interest in your program. It also helps you manage their expectations, needs, and feedback. Stakeholder engagement involves identifying and analyzing the stakeholders, developing and implementing a communication plan, and building and maintaining relationships.
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Engagement is a continuous process, with many inflection points throughout major programs. New participants will join throughout, therefore engaging in a very intentional "program-onboarding" can significantly enhance engagement.
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Risk management
Risk management is a technique that helps you identify, assess, and mitigate the uncertainties and threats that may affect your program. It also helps you optimize the opportunities and benefits of your program. Risk management involves establishing the risk context, identifying and analyzing the risks, planning and implementing the risk responses, and monitoring and reviewing the risks.
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I would say RAID management is super critical - Risks/ Assumptions/ Issues/ Dependencies & Decisions. While mostly the focus is on risks and issues, the rest of the categories have a potential to derail the implementation. It is important to have transparency at project and program level for successful implementations.
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Governance framework
A governance framework is a set of principles, policies, processes, and roles that guide and control your program. It also helps you ensure the quality, compliance, and alignment of your program with the organizational strategy and standards. A governance framework involves defining the scope, objectives, and boundaries of your program, establishing the decision-making and reporting structures, and setting the performance and evaluation criteria.
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Ensure this is well designed and understood by all stakeholders. A RASCI (responsible, accountable, supporting, consulted) matrix can help a lot. Steering Committee members should be able to make decisions and clear any barriers for the teams. Post your governance framework where anyone can easily access it as an information radiator.
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Program life cycle
A program life cycle is a framework that describes the phases and activities of your program from initiation to closure. It also helps you manage the transitions, dependencies, and changes of your program. A program life cycle involves initiating, planning, executing, controlling, and closing your program, as well as managing the benefits realization and stakeholder satisfaction.
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Start with the end in mind…but assume churn is inevitable. So many programs go wonky because we avoid the various succession planning challenges every major program faces at some point. When you proactively plan for staff succession plans and resiliency, you strengthen the ability to weather all of the transition points on the program lifecycle.
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Agile methods
Agile methods are a set of frameworks that help you deliver your program in an iterative, incremental, and adaptive way. They also help you respond to changing requirements, feedback, and priorities. Agile methods involve organizing your program into smaller and more manageable units, such as sprints, releases, or features, and applying the principles of collaboration, transparency, and customer value.
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I have often seen agile as an excuse for less rigor and poor documentation. Sound agile practices should bring more rigor to the team. Routines and ceremonies should ensure risks are closely managed and issues are handled quickly.
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Here’s what else to consider
This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?
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The techniques noted as well as the comment made about a life cycle framework (my wording of this is a phase gate model) are all necessary building blocks. What's missing from most discussions about PM work is the human side of managing the stresses each team member encounters. A good (the best PM's) are skilled at working one on one and one on small cross functional teams aligning individual deliverables in a way that promotes individual achievement and small team success in a way that focuses on what needs to be done now. The point is, managing the human side of an inherently stressful environment is a significant contributor to effective PM leadership.
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