Programs, Portfolios and Projects

What’s in a Name?

Douglas Brown, Ph.D., PgMPdbrownpm@verizon.net

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Things that make you go “hmm”• If these things keep happening to you

– What idiot came up with these arbitrary deadlines and budgets?

– Project has been on hold for months because we can’t get the right people (or it is slipping because we are trying to do it with the wrong people)

– We keep having the same problem over and over. Everybody can see these problems but nobody does anything about it

• Your program management is not working

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Contributing to the confusion …• PMI’s early definition that a program is a

grouping of projects (since OBE)• DoD uses the terms “program” and “acquisition”

loosely– Calls everything a program, even when it is a project– Does not call anything a project– Projects last so long that they are really programs

• Federal “acquisition” dominated by “contracting”• OMB is only interested in projects• Steady-state consumes 50-80% of the resources

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What’s in a name?• Avoids confusion (too late)

– “Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language, and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them which they have imagined to do”

– "When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said in a rather a scornful tone, "it means just what I choose it to mean -- neither more nor less.

"The question is," said Alice, "whether you can make words mean different things."

"The question is," said Humpty Dumpty, "which is to be master -- that's all."

• Gives you a starting point– Understanding your methodology

means you know what you would do in the absence of other guidance

• Take what you can get– Then, God be bless'd, it is the blessed

sun: – But sun it is not, when you say it is

not; – And the moon changes even as your

mind. – What you will have it named, even

that it is; – And so it shall be so for Katharina. – If they want to have a portfolio

manager’s meeting instead of a “program review” – great!!

– Don’t let “red” become “green”

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Pick a Starting PointDefinitions – according to me …

• Program: a collection of activities (project and sustainment) that establish and maintain solutions to complex organizational objectives over an extended period– Programs are a continuous cycle of creation, life and death

• Project: a specific time-bounded effort to deliver a new capability– Projects deliver new capabilities

• Portfolio: a collection of some or all investments viewed from a particular perspective with the intent of optimizing that perspective *– Selecting better apples from good apples

5* = deviation from PMI PGM standard

Alternative FrameworksProject Level (PMBOK)• Initiate• Plan• Execute• Control• Close

Program Level (PMI Program standard)• Pre-Program Setup = Initiate• Program Setup = Plan

and Program Management and Technical Infrastructure

• Deliver the Benefits = Execute• No activity like Control• Close

CPIC (both levels) - OMB• Analyze or Pre-Select = Plan• Select = Initiate• No activity like Execute• Control• Evaluate =Close

Governance

Solution

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How it all fits

Strategy

Environment, market or

higher authorities

Portfolio management

Program planIn theory …

Program-level reviews

Project-level reviews

Organizational governance

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Organizational governance• Generally, done by a board

– Will require objective staff input to counter program spin

• Define missions, objectives, major programs• Allocate major resource pools

– Pie-slices; assumes competence of program planners– Recursive

• Total reasonable requirements bubble up

• Acceptable ceilings push down

– Forms program baseline

• Confirm directions of programs– Continued value, cost-benefit

• Resolve organization-wide issues• Inquiry into specific critical activities

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Strategy

External authorities

Program management• May be a person or a standing office• Operates WITHIN constraints (baselines) established by

organizational governance• Develop program-wide governance• Program objectives

– Refine

– Allocate to “initiatives” – projects and sustainment

• Allocate resource pools– Recursive

– Creates project/initiative baselines

• Oversee all projects and initiatives– Conduct milestone reviews of initiatives

– Including in-service reviews

• Resolve program-wide issues – Especially dependencies

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Program plan Program-level reviews

Analy

ze

Select Contro

l

Evaluate Analy

ze

Select Contro

l

Evaluate

Continue

New needs

Needs

What about these needs?

Cycle (Year) 1 Cycle (Year) 2

Recursive – cyclic

Continue

Wait till next year??!!This is

bureaucratic bull …

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Project Management• Operates within baselines

established at program level• Triple Constraint

– Cost– Schedule– Scope – Performance

• SDLC-based– Each phase / spiral / iteration

follows the SDLC

• Project manager is generally a person with ad-hoc staff

• Project manager masters the details– Integration– Scope– Schedule– Cost– Quality– Risk– Communications– Procurement– Resource

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PMP skills return in PGMP – in a different way• Scope, schedule, cost, quality:

– Baselines; High-level milestones and dependencies

• Procurements– May be centralized, maybe not

– Program Office probably does not do detailed awards*• Communications – different focus

– Building support and getting money

• Risk – program-wide– Not as detailed. Search for common or institutional risks

• Resources – pools vs names. Human capital planning.– One of most important efforts

– Skill set pools; depends on resourcing at initiative level

• Integration – the primary purpose

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* = deviation from PMI PGM standard

What about portfolios?• Wall Street metaphor

– In the end, everything on Wall Street is a dollar instrument

• Texts treat as a math problem– Identify weighting factors– Rate investments– Rack and stack– Deal from the top

• It doesn’t work that way– Education > public safety?– “Math” only works when you have relatively similar items

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Real-world portfolio managementWithin program• Everything is reasonably

homogeneous• Still have to break between

sustainment and project• For projects only:

– Rack and stack

– Below the line:• “Shovel ready” (UFR)• Deferred or rejected

• For steady state:– Force direction with

performance goals an benchmarks

Enterprise• Focus on a single issue across

a wide range of investments– Could be a strategic direction

– Could be a compliance issue

• Non-decisional– Cannot approve or reject

investment

– May be permitted to hamper progress if not addressed

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Never say never

Things that bug project managers …

Needs to gain perspective

• “Arbitrary” budgets and completion dates are doomed to failure

• Demands for project status requires self-incrimination

• Interference in activities below SDLC milestones

• Post-mortems just beat a dead horse

• Raising red flags causes embarrassment

Legitimate issues

• Off-the-cuff promises, refusal to compromise $, time or scope

• Micro-management of MS-Project detail while losing focus on intent

• Other projects / initiatives are unreliable partners

• Widespread issues are known but never solved

• Cannot get significant issues resolved

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Roundup• Don’t let terminology get

in the way of success• Organizational change is

always hard– If program management

and/or transparency are not part of the organizational culture, then you are moving a lot of cheese

• Roles– Organizational governance

establishes goals and sets priorities

– Program management provides the capacities that project managers will need

– Project management gets the work done

– Portfolio management considers specific issues, or selects from among similar opportunities

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