Effective Program Management Software for Aligning High Level Planning with Detailed Work Delivery

Maturing Program Management

Lean Governance and Funding

There is increasing recognition that today’s fast-paced world requires an approach to planning and delivery that is optimized to the best possible business outcomes in the least possible time. That can’t be done by defining individual projects in detail and then attempting to deliver that work while managing change. Instead, the focus is shifting to the larger scale work – the programs. For example, to achieve a revenue or market share goal, an organization now commits to the development of a new customer offering, funding work at that level, and managing performance against objectives for that overall offering.

It is then up to the individual owner of that investment to define the individual work items needed to produce and commercialize the offering – the hardware, software, distribution, sales and marketing, support, and so on that makes up a complete offering. PMOs must be able to support these investment owners, ensuring that resources are available across all these major investments – programs, keeping work aligned with business needs, and ensuring a continuous flow of meaningful information to program managers / investment owners and project managers.

Achieving that requires a PPM solution that can seamlessly manage everything from high level planning to detailed work delivery using any approach and consolidate information in a context that makes sense for each stakeholder. That’s where KeyedIn excels, along with the ability to model and analyze different options to ensure that the performance of every program in the portfolio is optimized.

Managing Dependencies

One of the advantages of a more mature approach to program management is that work is managed in a more contained manner. When the focus is on the program, all of the individual projects and similar initiatives within that program can be managed collectively to ensure that the overall goals and objectives of the program are met, even in an ever-evolving environment. For program managers and investment owners that’s a good thing, but PMOs need to maintain a broader perspective.

They must manage dependencies across programs, whether those dependencies relate to functionality, resources, or any other relationship. PMOs need to be able to maintain a portfolio focus, and that requires a comprehensive PPM solution that allows them to manage across all priorities, goals, objectives and program level investments, balancing individual needs with enterprise needs. That in turn requires comprehensive information and the ability to analyze that information to generate real insight and drive better decision making.

Managing Over Time

Even at the speed of modern business, many programs will span multiple business cycles, and for PMOs that means that there needs to be careful consideration of previous commitments when supporting he organizational strategic planning cycle. For a lot of organizations, the available discretionary funds for any one business cycle are severely limited due to requirements to support regulatory requirements, maintenance work and these ongoing programs.

PMOs need to be able to develop effective plans and options by analyzing and modeling proposed portfolio mixes to ensure that resources (human and financial) are being optimized across new and existing programs, and that decisions are taken quickly and decisively if programs are no longer capable of achieving their expected goals. That in turn requires a powerful PPM platform to support that analysis and to convert plans into intuitive, contextualized communications for all stakeholders.

Multiple Working Models, One Perspective

Today’s programs are likely to contain a highly diverse mix of work items. Strategic solutions may well combine technology with physical products, they may require process changes in areas ranging from supply chain, to professional services, to support. As a result, there are likely to be a number of different approaches taken to delivering the work. Program managers and investment owners need to ensure that work is delivered in the most effective and efficient way possible, and that means allowing teams to use traditional, Agile, hybrid and informal approaches based on need and circumstance.

However, all of those approaches have to be capable of combining performance information in order to provide the program level decision makers with a complete and accurate view of performance and to drive the best possible decision making. PMOs support that capability by leveraging an effective PPM solution to provide value based metrics, consolidated through integrations with all of the organization’s work management tools, and supported by powerful analytics and reporting.