Methodologies · The change column
PgM
P4MGO!® PgM
Programme Management
It pursues and verifies benefits, new capabilities and new run. It launches all the initiatives required, advances in stages and manages ambiguity.
Some initiatives deliver a specific result and conclude; other transformations pursue a benefit and cannot be considered finished until that benefit is actually realized. Program Management is the discipline for the latter.
What a program is
A program is not a bigger project.
What turns an initiative into a program is not its size, but its ambiguity or the fact that it pursues a benefit or a new capability. The program launches the projects, digital products and processes required, verifies that they conclude correctly and that the benefits materialize, and ends only when the benefit is delivered on a sustained basis.
A digital public services portal is a new capability and, therefore, a program. The development of its software is a digital product. The processes, staff training, the outreach campaign and the infrastructure it requires are projects.
“Ambiguity is not knowing what you are trying to achieve. Uncertainty is not knowing whether you will achieve what you are trying to achieve. Programs can be ambiguous; projects, never, because a project must declare a clear scope. Both are uncertain.”
The two tracks
Program Management and Program Governance.
Those who govern are accountable for doing the right things; those who manage are accountable for doing things right.
Managers track
Program Management · Programme Manager
For professionals responsible for managing. They decide autonomously on everything within their authority and tolerances, prepare, with their recommendation, the decisions that are not theirs to make, and are accountable for their management to the Owner.
Owners track
Program Governance · Programme Owner
For professionals responsible for leading. They are accountable for the outcome to whoever delegated to them, decide under delegation from Governance within their remit, approve what the Manager escalates to them and are accountable for ensuring the initiative remains justified.
The book and the certification
P4MGO!® PgM Programme Management Body of Knowledge
P4MGO!® PgM Programme Manager and P4MGO!® PgM Programme Owner: certifications of persons issued by Certification.Institute, holder of the Business&Co.® certification scheme, aligned with the ISO/IEC 17024 personnel certification scheme.
Intermediate level. Prerequisite: P4MGO!® Foundations for Managers or for Owners, or P4MGO!® Essentials.
P4MGO!® PgM training and implementation.
The Management and Governance courses are delivered by ATOs (Accredited Training Organizations), training organizations accredited in P4MGO!®. Implementation within the organization is the role of ACOs (Accredited Consulting Organizations), consulting firms accredited in P4MGO!®, with professionals certified in the discipline.