Program management and PPM/Portfolio management: challenges and best practices

Less well known than project or portfolio management, program management plays a vital role in the vital role within a company. It supports the achievement of strategic objectives for the organization.

But before we get to that, we need to understand what we're talking about. In this article, we offer you a guide to clarify what program management is and why it's so strategic for your company.

1. Understanding the difference between program management and project management

Often confused with project management, we were keen to redefine program management to avoid any risk of confusion. 

     A) Definition of "program

Here is the definition proposed by the Project Management Institute(PMI):

     B) In concrete terms: what is program management?

Ultimately, program management involves coordinating a set of interconnected projects. Managing them together brings benefits that would otherwise be impossible to achieve, such as financial financial and human resources.

     C) Project management vs. program management

A project consists of a succession of tasks to achieve a defined objective. Project management is therefore about managing this scope.

Unlike a project, a program refers to a set of set of interrelated projects. By optimizing resources and ensuring precise coordination, they are designed to achievestrategic objectives for the company.

Each project is generally managed by a project manager. When you have several project managers who need to be coordinated, it's called a program.

     D) An example of a program: lyrics translation at Deezer 

Let's take a concrete example. Music streaming company Deezer recently developed a lyric translation function. This involved a division of labor: 

• Research to verify intuitions about the relevance of this feature
• Validation of the project's legal viability
• Building partnerships with speech and translation service providers
• Redesigning the user experience 
• Coordination of launch with product and marketing teams
• Optimization identification
• Analysis of user feedback 

Lastly, the development of this feature for displaying lyric translations can be seen as a program, made up of different projects. These are articulated to achieve strategic alignment for Deezer: 

• Improving the user experience
• Increased time spent on the application
• Proof of innovation and competitive advantage

2. Understand the difference between program management and project portfolio management

Think of running a company as a collection of Russian dolls. 

The project is part of the programitself part of the project portfolio. Here's a structure that should clarify things for you:

1. Mission and vision 
2. Strategy
3. Project portfolio
4. Programs
5. Projects 

The project portfolio may contain several programs or several projectsthat are not necessarily not necessarily interdependent with each other.

However, as with program management, project portfolio management involves moving towards strategic direction for the company. This is not necessarily the case with a project. To find out more, read our article on the basics of project portfolio management.

3. Why implement program management?

     A) Get the big picture

Implementing program management is a structuring action for the company. Indeed, program management provides a overview on projects and, above all, their interdependencies.

The coordination of financial and human resources align the objectives with the company's overall strategy. Program management provides the necessary necessary structure to coordinate, prioritize and manage the interdependencies of projects, often cross-functional between departments.

     B) Optimizing resources

Setting up project governance greatly helps to simplify resource allocation. The same applies to program management.

• Financial :

The global vision offered by program management helps you to anticipate, allocate and adapt your budgets with complete transparency.

• Human resources :

Evaluating the interdependencies between projects enables you to optimize the allocation of your staff. In this way, your talents can work on several projects in your program at the same time.

This has several advantages: 

• • Improved customer satisfaction This provides a transparent view of the organization and of cross-functional opportunities, thus reinforcing trust.
  • Time-saving The knowledge of environments limits training time. This facilitates grouped actions, enabling simultaneous progress on different projects.
  • Financial gain Training and recruitment costs can be optimized and reduced.

The Stafiz platform digitalizes your resource management and helps you achieve your various objectives:

• optimize occupancy rates,
• keep employees engaged,
• have visibility of projects actually underwaybut also forecasting to anticipate your recruitment needs.
• respect project budgets thanks to a real-time vision and forecast of the financial impact of all your actions.

=> If you prefer to be guided, discover our guide to effective resource management.

White paper
The guide to implementing an effective resource planning approach

5 keys to reaching your resource planning goals.

Download guide

     C) Improving control over risks and opportunities

Program management, by providing an overview, improves risk and opportunity management by enabling : 

• Improve anticipation
• From postpone when necessary
• Identify potential opportunities
• From manage conflicts that can impact the entire organization

As a program management tool, Stafiz offers features to help you manage risks and opportunities: 

• From alerts to identify forecasted risks
• From dashboards to make you more flexible and agile: you can easily shift your resources in the event of risks, or re-prioritize your projects.
• Synchronization with the work environment
• A tracking of purchase orders and invoices for better follow-up

4. How to set up optimal program management?

     A) Check your structure's compatibility with program management

If you intend to implement program management in your company, make sure that your current structure can support such a methodology. Indeed, it requires many resources and is therefore aimed at organizations with a high level of maturity.

Guiding teams, structuring the organization and coordinating the whole require a level of leadership and management and management skills.

Significant resources are required, from a financial point of view financial and human to establish optimal cross-functionality. Last but not least communication processes are essential.

     B) Define a clear strategy

Implementing effective program management requires strong coordination skills and the definition of a precise action plan.

• Identify objectives

The first step is therefore to define objectives and identify the key performance indicators (KPIs) that will be used to assess their performance. 

• Building a roadmap

The second step will require you to draw up a roadmap consisting of :

• • The list of projects belonging to the
  • A calendar
  • Key milestones
  • Strategic objectives to which the program responds

The roadmap is an excellent visual aid not only to organizebut also communicate your action plan within the organization. Know-how is just as important as know-how.

• Planning and execution

The rest of the program management implementation includes : 

• • Planning
  • Execution
  • Coordination
  • The control

The coordination of multiple projects and control will be involved throughout the program. To achieve this, use precise metrics that will help you evaluate a program's performance, effectiveness and profitability.

You'll find several types of metrics, here are just a few: 

• Financial metrics Total program cost, return on investment
• Operational metrics : task completion rate, average cycle time, etc.

     C) Designate a program manager

Like the project manager for project management, the program manager is to coordinate the program. It is important to quickly appoint this person in charge of the smooth running of the program, whose tasks are numerous:

• Designing roadmaps
• Check that projects are consistent with the company's strategic vision
• Monitor progress
• Coordinate project managers
• Organizing resources
• Managing and reducing risks
• Analyze program success or failure
• Identify areas for improvement

     D) Use appropriate software 

In project management, choosing a PPM (Portfolio Project Management) tool is crucial, as it facilitates the allocation and optimization of resources.

Program management also requires a dedicated tool. Stafiz is such a tool, and can support both the program manager as well as management teamat every stage of implementation.

Stafiz offers the following features, among others: 

• Resource management, within and across company programs
• Dependencies Management
• Inter-team or inter-entity invoicing to facilitate sales recognition and precise analysis of company activities  
• Post-completion project analysis to more accurately cost projects and measure the effectiveness of program projects

Discover project management in Stafiz

Often implemented in large, highly mature high level of maturityprogram management structure and maximizes productivity.

However, the difficulty of setting it up can be an obstacle, as it requires a rigorous rigorous organization and precisely defined objectives to deliver real benefits.

Nevertheless, a step-by-step step by stepthe appointment of a program manager and the use of high-performance, multi-tasking software such as Stafiz will help you implement optimal program management. This will enable you to d'optimize your resources so you can reach your strategic objectives more quickly.