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The “Unwritten Rules” of Project and Program Management

May 31, 2009 | Author: PM Hut | Filed under: Program Management, Project Management Musings

The “Unwritten Rules” of Project and Program Management
By Vaughan Merlyn

I’ve argued before that Project Management is a ‘foundation discipline’ primarily concerned with producing agreed deliverables, according to an agreed time-frame and within an agreed budget. (I know this is an extreme simplification, but bear with me – there are more important points to make than nitpicking the details of project management practices.) I’ve further argued that Program Management builds on this foundation discipline that is primarily concerned with managing groups of inter-dependent projects in order to deliver agreed business outcomes. As such, program management is outcomes focused, rather than deliverable focused, and is concerned with project inter-dependencies.

So, here’s an example of Unwritten Rules that drive Project Management behavior, but not Program Management behavior:

  • “Whatever you do, make sure you deliver on-time and within budget, and you will do well.”
  • “You’ve got to balance scope, time, resources and quality – to be successful in this organization, never let time or resources exceed budget, and don’t drop quality. If something is going to give, let it be scope! You can always fill in missing scope in a later release.”
  • “Installing the software is our job – keep focused on that – anything else is a distraction, and is beyond your control.”
  • “Never let a project fail – it will be the end of your career here!”

Let’s compare these rules with the kind of unwritten rules that drive behavior in an organization with a strong focus on program management:

  • “The business outcomes determine scope and define success – if you partner with the business folk, and work towards achievement of those outcomes, you will be successful and will be recognized for it!”
  • “If you believe that the program you are leading is not set up for success – i.e., is not going to deliver on its business outcomes within the available budget and resources, you have to speak up and confront the program sponsor. Silence is not an acceptable behavior. Meeting deliverables deadlines and budgets is worthless if we are not realizing the business outcomes! Killing a program that is not going to deliver on its outcomes is a valued behavior here!”
  • “Everyone understands that project estimating is an uncertain activity. Don’t take shortcuts to meet unrealistic deadlines. The business outcomes are everything, and if the program is sponsored properly, and you have frank and open dialog with the sponsor and the team, and raise issues as soon as they are recognized, then estimates can be legitimately revised in the light of experience.”

For all of the Project Management training, certification, investment in sophisticated tools and Project Management methodologies, the Unwritten Rules first listed above are the ones I see most frequently, leading to poor project performance, low realized value from IT investments, and a generally weak relationship between IT and the business it serves. Where I’ve seen the second set of Unwritten Rules – those more commonly associated with Program Management behavior, I’ve seen an organization that is either at, or is heading towards Level 3 Business-IT maturity, and enjoying high realized value, and a mutually productive and satisfying business relationship.

Take a moment – talk to some of your more experienced project leads, have them read this post, then ask them candidly (anonymously, if necessary) to describe the “Unwritten Rules that drive project behavior.” Are they what you would want? Are they what your CEO would hope for? Would they delight your CFO?

Vaughan Merlyn is a management consultant, researcher, and occasional author. His primary focus for the last 35 years or so has been and continues to be the use of information and information technology (IT) for business value creation. Vaughan is an Executive Vice President with nGenera. In that role, he participates in multi-company research projects, consult with Fortune 500 type companies, and provide Executive Education. His blog can be found at http://vaughanmerlyn.com/.

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This entry was posted on Sunday, May 31st, 2009 and is filed under Program Management, Project Management Musings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

1 person has left a comment

Interesting post! Program Management is all about delivering benefit to the business. It is about managing a group of interdependent projects so that business benefit is delivered. Because of this program managers need to be much more commercially astute then project managers typically are. I think many project managers could benefit from adding this skill to their arsenal, as well as the ability to manage scope, schedule, resources, and quality. After all, what good is an on time fully scoped project, built within resource and quality constraints if it doesn’t deliver any benefit to the business?

Denis

Denis wrote on July 9, 2009 - 5:47 am | Visit Link

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