Program Management
What changes when you move from one project to a coordinated set of them: the work stops being about delivery dates and starts being about benefits, dependencies, and decisions made under partial information.
What it covers
Program versus project
Why a program is not a large project, and the failure modes of treating it as one.
Benefits management
Identifying, quantifying, and profiling benefits; assigning benefit owners; tracking realisation past go-live.
Blueprint and target operating model
Describing the end state clearly enough that component projects can be scoped against it.
Tranches and roadmap
Structuring delivery into tranches with meaningful decision points between them.
Dependency management
Mapping inter-project dependencies, interface agreements, and managing the critical chain across teams.
Governance
Board composition, decision rights, stage gates, and assurance reviews that add value rather than delay.
Resource and capacity
Competing demands across projects, shared specialists, and the arithmetic of over-commitment.
Program controls and reporting
Aggregating status without losing signal, and reporting confidence alongside progress.
Transition to operations
Readiness criteria, phased adoption, and the point at which the program stops owning the outcome.
Who it's for
Experienced project managers stepping up to program level, program office staff, and sponsors accountable for a portfolio of related change.
What's included
- Facilitator slide deck with speaker notes
- Participant workbook and exercise pack
- Templates and worked examples in editable format
- Case studies for group work
- Knowledge checks and end-of-module questions
- Trainer guide with timings and suggested agendas
On completion, participants can
- Structure a program into tranches with defined decision points
- Build a benefits map and a realisation plan with named owners
- Manage a cross-project dependency register
- Design governance proportionate to the program's risk