Program management
Program Management is the coordinated organisation, direction
and implementation of a group of projects and activities that
together achieve the outcomes and realise benefits that are of
strategic importance.
Successful delivery through program management
Programs deliver outcomes and benefits. Outcomes are
delivered through implementation of project outputs and are the
effect of change. Outcomes form the vision for the program and
eventually lead to benefits, the measurable improvement in
performance or capacity.
When to use a program management approach
A program is a group of related projects managed in a
coordinated way to obtain benefits and control not available from
managing them individually.
Programs may be set up to deliver change in the community,
across the whole of the Queensland Government, across more than one
level of government, or in the environment in which Transport and
Main Roads operates. A program may be used to deliver a range of
different types of change.
Program Management principles may be applied to any program,
whatever the level of its focus or the nature of its outcomes, and
can provide structure and process to all types of change. It is
important to remember that using Program Management requires
resourcing, with appropriately skilled and experienced individuals,
in order to take on the responsibilities and carry out the
management activities involved in successful performance.
Benefits of program management
The benefits that have been associated with program management
include:
- achievement of strategic benefits
- optimised or integrated costs
- efficiencies in resourcing; particularly where resource
constraints may affect projects within the program
optimisation of the supply chain and industry resources, including
access to larger suppliers through bulking of smaller projects, and
greater confidence for suppliers to allow them to plan longer
term
- improved stakeholder management and stakeholder satisfaction
through more streamlined and coordinated engagement processes
- application of risk mitigation strategies across projects
- coordinated response to changes in direction that affect
certain projects
- strengthen capacity for contingency planning
- improved decision making information and more streamlined
reporting processes
- improved project prioritisation to achieve program outcomes,
including improved ability to identify relationships amongst
projects and the need for integration.
Selecting and prioritising program's management
There are many methods for selecting or prioritising projects
for inclusion in a program.
Examples include:
- strategy determines which categories or projects are
selected
- political priorities
- equality between groups or geographic areas
- the state of development of the various possible project
concepts
- benefit cost ratio
- multi criteria analysis
- funding constraints
- critical resource availability.
Some combination of these will often be used. For example, see
the following assessment criteria used for evaluating proposals
submitted by local governments for one particular program.
Assessment criteria
- Does the proposal fall within the scope of the program?
- How well does the proposal to achieving the strategic
objectives?
- What benefits will the proposal produce?
- Who or what number of people will the benefits flow to?
- What will be the upfront cost of the proposal?
- What will be the maintenance costs of the proposal?
- Do the benefits exceed the cost?
- Does it serve a relatively disadvantage or remote or isolated
group?
- Does past funding history indicate priority is due?
- Does equity between regions or districts need to be
considered?
However individual methods of prioritising are considered to be
tools or techniques and are not yet specifically covered on this
website.
