A. All too often, semantics interfere with job definitions.
It's certainly the case in businesses where projects are in play under different manager job descriptions. One of the areas creating the most confusion is spelling out a project manager's responsibilities (versus a program manager) and setting a dividing line to appreciate who does what. Undoubtedly, there's a perception of overlap. This article aims to remove all the confusion and set boundaries for managers' roles in this crucial arena.
So what's the difference between a project and a program?
There's nothing much more frustrating to program managers, mostly if newly recruited, than when the job essentially ends up as one in project management. It indicates that:
The company doesn't genuinely know the difference between a project and a program.
The right employment theme is unlikely to emerge as activities advance.
Retention of the candidates’ services in the long-term is severely handicapped.
A project is like a duck.
There's an analogy that goes, "If it quacks like a duck, walks like a duck, and flies like a duck - it's a duck!" Along these lines, if any activity is:
Temporary
Conducted by specialist teams
One of the numerous others around the same strategic objective.
It's a project.
On the other end of the spectrum, recognizing a program depends on...
An overview of numerous aligned initiatives (i.e., projects) progressing in parallel toward achieving an embracing company goal. The defining difference is that each initiative reflects enough unique characteristics to set it apart. In other words, looking at a task in a project is worlds apart from overviewing a separate project with its own set of functions essential for success.
Here's the thing. Some projects have an expansive reach, with a complicated integration of tasks - each of the latter looking like a project in itself. Indeed, there are instances when single projects dwarf programs in size, blurring the lines even more. However, a program stands out most of the time because it:
Motors along on a much grander scale than a project.
Connects to higher budgets
Involves more diverse organizational divisions drawn into a collaborative workflow.
B. Program Manager Work Definitions
Program managers carry skills that allow them to oversee many simultaneous projects converging on the same ultimate goal. It requires balancing inter-project budgets, adjusting management plans to sequence projects correctly, and brings parties into the picture to meet and cooperate as program participants. Each project reflects specialty, fulfilling a unique role in the program. It looks different from its counterparts yet shares one overriding objective.
The program manager's duties are distinguishable because they:
Set the program's scope, establishing the number of projects essential for the program to reach completion.
Brief the project managers connected to each team's activities.
Cover the HR side of things from the beginning for all minds to be on the same page. It's vital to integrate people with different orientations and thinking patterns, driving a program forward without hitting speed bumps that can stall the journey.
Delegate project risks and resolving schedule interruptions to each project manager.
Focus attention on projects that, by exception, go off track, thereby threatening to throw the program objective into "iffy" territory.
Ensure all the teams in the program understand:
Their respective contribution to the overall action.
The milestones pressuring all projects to meet deadlines while conforming to defined standards.
Talking about milestones, on every level, they’re crucial to program success. For example, they may involve bringing team skills and talents up to speed with training courses or online information by a deadline date. Program methods align well with engineering fields (e.g., systems and digital). Participants customarily resort to outside sources to add impactful knowledge as technologies becoming obsolete (i.e., as noticeably as they previously entered as "the next big thing.")
D. Project Manager Work Definitions.
Unlike a program manager, a project manager traditionally enters the project after it's begun. Indeed, an appointment can occur at any time. It means frequently they take over responsibilities already decided and a combination of tasks already in motion. Nonetheless, as intimated above, it boils down to managing one team with a relatively narrow focus. Taking a bird's eye view, it stands alongside multiple other projects connected by a program objective.
A significant difference comes down to the risk level carried by the activity:
Whereas the program manager lives with the possibility of any project turning into the rotten apple that spoils the whole barrel, that's not on the project manager's radar at all.
Risk definition, meeting budget constraints, and harnessing team effort remains within project borders only.
It's not to say that project risk is less severe than those in the program, but they're likely to be very different in nature. Highly complex projects at the center of comprehensive programs will probably encounter disruptive volatility. Project managers must have the specialist skills to address the latter.
On the other hand, program managers often aren't equipped (skill or experience-wise) to deal with such specifics. Even if they are, in the bigger scheme of things, it's not within their inclination to spend much time on it.
Project managers are pivotal players in a broad range of industries, including construction, healthcare, IT, finance, and energy. Considering that these fields share a dependency on technology, management carrying project momentum forward must be:
Organized
Resource-conscious
Able to conduct affairs in a businesslike manner.
It calls for employing useful tools to facilitate team communication, conduct constructive meetings, and develop seamless workflows to ease the day-to-day grind. As the project terminates, so do project managers' responsibilities, notwithstanding that the program is ongoing. Notably, new projects replace expired ones in a dynamic environment, thus possibly redirecting competent and versatile project managers into other situations within the program’s scope. Alternatively, it may result in a project manager moving into a program manager position within a portfolio (i.e., a strategic combination of programs) - a subject for another day.
C.Project Manager and Project Manager Similarities.
Two unique roles with significant differences don't disqualify fundamental disciplines the designations share in achieving industry-best standards. These cover the same guidelines for project management phases and processes that govern initiation, planning, execution, and monitoring approaches. For example, documentation, closing-off procedures, spreading the feedback to relevant parties, and budget/financial reporting are the same in both spaces.
D.Summary
Professionals move into these career paths knowing the latter offer exceptional opportunities to develop efficient teams as they work in unison toward a shared goal. Irrespective of program or project management, there are many tools available to give one an advantage, enhancing the proficiency of daily operations.
The long-and-short of it is:
A program manager simultaneously leads multiple project teams.
In contrast, their project counterparts specialize in individual team pursuits.
A program manager takes a big-picture view of things, somewhat removed from project ups and downs.
Project managers put their eyes on the "trees" (versus the "forest"), making detailed adjustments as and when needed.
A program manager ensures that all teams are on schedule and updated on strategic milestones.
Project managers focus on micro-project stepping stones that eventually lead to junctures where all the relevant projects in a program converge.
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