I am teaching a new course this spring at Central Michigan
University. This course, MSA 607 - Program
Management in Complex Organizations, expands on traditional project
management. The goal here is to understand how, in larger organizations,
projects relate to each other and the organization itself.
The Project Management Institute, the de
facto standard bearer for project management, provides three tiers
of organization. Stealing a bit from their online
lexicon, we can
understand those levels better. First, a project is a “temporary
endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, service, or result.”
Temporary is a key element, as projects are frequently defined as
having a start date and an end date. I tell my project management
students that the course is a project and I usually use a kanban
board to management my
class.
Up a level is the program, a set of “elated projects, subsidiary
programs, and program activities managed in a coordinated manner
to obtain benefits not available from managing them individually.”
The program collects the projects together. For instance, there may
be a program to put together a new website. One project may focus
on aesthetic design and another on content. Those two projects are
related, but probably would be better off managed separately. This
is the level of MSA 607.
The highest level is the portfolio, “rojects, programs,
subsidiary portfolios, and operations managed as a group to achieve
strategic objectives.” Portfolio management is the strategic-level
connection among these various things. An IT director will be a
portfolio manager, having a program for the website, one for the
ERP system,
one for the CRM
system,
and so on. All of the bits and pieces of IT come together to move
the organization forward, and the portfolio is designed to capture
that holistic view.
Together, these concepts make it easier to manage large and complex
organizations and this is why we want to understand the relationships
better. MSA 607’s goals and objectives state that at the end of the
course, a student should be able to:
- Dissect the elements of the project management process in complex
organizations.
- Determine strategies for program alignment and meeting objectives.
- Propose strategies for deliverables management.
- Deduce strategies for working with sponsors and shareholders
including communication and conflict resolution.
- Perceive risks and challenges in each phase of multiple project
management.
- Develop a startup plan and roadmap for managing programs.
- Plan program scope, understand risks and challenges.
- Incorporate the key elements of planning processes and tools
in an organization’s strategic goals.
- Propose strategies for managing organizational change and
recovering troubled projects.
- Evaluate methods of accessing performance.
- Recommend strategies for status tracking and documentation.
I am looking forward to teaching this new and exciting class. You
can read the full syllabus on my management teaching
page.