By Rod Hutchings MAppSc MAIPM MACS RegPM(MPD)

Programme Management is an approach to managing change and delivering business benefits from a set of related projects. Programmes are becoming increasingly important as a management tool for integrating complex activities into a comprehensive unit of focused effort and delivery.  Many organisations have adopted projects and project management as the vehicle for delivering new or changed business capability. Harnessing these projects into a coherent improvement process is a constant challenge. The objective for a programme is to co-ordinate the delivery from a specific set of projects such that the programme can achieve more than just the outcomes from its projects, it can deliver measurable benefits that can be realised within the timescales of the programme as well as afterwards.

The OGC, that created PRINCE2, also have created Managing Successful Programmes (MSP) framework.  Managing Successful Programmes describes how to identify the vision (the Vision Statement) for the programme, which may be to deliver a new service, or to perform the same service but in a more efficient way, or simply to be better than the competition. The way the organisation will achieve the Vision Statement is defined by the programme’s Blueprint and the Project Portfolio. The Blueprint is a detailed description of the business processes, people, data, information systems and facilities that will deliver the capability expressed in the Vision Statement. The Project Portfolio is the collection of projects set up to deliver the new capabilities that, when implemented, will enable the organisation to achieve the Vision Statement.

Managing Successful Programmes identifies the following principles of effective programme management and suggests how to put them into practice.

• Programme Management Organisation - giving people clear roles, responsibilities, leadership and lines of communication. There is a Sponsoring Group of senior executives including the Programme Director with ultimate accountability
• Programme planning - using a Programme Plan to ensure that control is established and maintained
• Benefits management - identifying, optimising and tracking expected benefits to ensure they are achieved
• Stakeholder management - ensuring all interested parties are appropriately involved in the programme
• Issue management and Risk management - having strategy for dealing with current and anticipated problems
• Quality management - ensuring that the end products of the programme are fit for purpose
• Configuration management - keeping monitoring information about the programme up-to-date and accurate
• Audit - ensuring that technical, statutory, contract and accounting standards are used

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