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  PROGRAM MANAGEMENT
Program management is the process of managing a portfolio of multiple ongoing inter-dependent projects. Sometimes it requires/ involves hundreds or even thousands of separate projects. In an Organization or an Enterprise, Program Management also reflects the emphasis on coordinating and prioritizing resources across projects, departments, and entities to insure that resource contention is managed from a global focus. Key factors in program management are Governance, Management, Finances, Infrastructure, Risk management and Planning.

Setting up an office to manage programmes across the business from the top down could be a smart idea. Like all attractive business concepts, programme management is a great idea in theory but moving from theory to practice is hard work. Launching a new product, for example, may involve a research and development effort, a training project for sales staff and a marketing communications campaign, all of which may be separate projects with a common goal (a programme). To manage all of these projects, a separate team in the form of a programme management office (PMO) may be needed. Normally when you get into something major, say £10m or more, you need a formal programme management office.

The staff in a PMO will focus on a number of individual functions to keep the various projects within the programme working smoothly together. The emphasis is on enforcing standard processes so that all projects are governed in the same way. The most important functions of a PMO are as follows;

a. Program Planning, Creating resource plans and Monitoring all interdependencies.
b. Creating a register of risks
c. Creating a register of benefits
d. Financial Control
e. Change Control and Change Management
f. Establish an hiearchy for control of discrete business processes
g. Creating disrutive/ revolutionary/ sustainable technologies

PROJECT
According to the Project Management Institute, a "project" is, "Any undertaking with a defined starting point and defined objectives the achievement of which identify completion or the end of the project. In practice most projects depend on finite or limited resources with which the objectives are to be accomplished." It could be anything, from a secretary's "project" to clean out an old filing cabinet to an engineer's "project" to create a multi-million dollar facility. Even these extremes have one thing in common: the application of work or effort to create a new situation, product or service. It should be added that for one reason or another most projects are restricted by limits imposed on resources (effort, equipment, materials, time and money).

MANAGEMENT
Managing, was well defined as long ago as 1916 by Henri Fayol. He said, "To manage is to forecast and plan, to organize, to command, to coordinate and to control. To forecast and plan means examining the future and drawing up the plan of action. To organize means to build up the dual structure, material and human. To command means maintaining activity amongst the personnel. To coordinate means bonding together, unifying and harmonizing all activity and effort. To control means seeing that everything occurs in conformity with established rule and expressed command."

PROJECT MANAGEMENT
According to the Project Management Institute, Project Management is, "The art of directing and coordinating human and material resources throughout the life of a project by using modern management techniques to achieve predetermined objectives of scope, cost, time, quality and participant satisfaction."

Program Management/ Project Management is composed of several different types of stages and activities, which are given below, and which do not have to performed in a specific order. Most of them are interdependent.
 
Program Management/ Project Management is composed of several different types of stages and activities, which are given below, and which do not have to performed in a specific order. Most of them are interdependent.


>>Stage 1 - Project Initiation Stage


Project Charter
Research/ Brainstorming
Feasibility Studies/ Business Plan
Front End planning/ Preliminary Scope
Environmental/ Social/ Financial impact assessment
Local regulations/ Bylaws

>>Stage 2 - Project Planning/ Design Stage

Scope Development
Conceptual Design
Financial Management/ Cashflow management
Specifications Development
Knowledge Management
Site Evaluation
Work Break down Structure (WBS)
Detailed Design
Contractibility Analysis/ Estimation/ BOQ development
Value Engineering
Environmental Impact Assessment
Resource Planning and Selection
Technical Marketing
Communication Planning/ IT Infrastructure
Project Management Models/ Tools/ Standards Selection

>>Stage 3 - Project Execution/ Production Stage

Contract Administration/ Partnering
Project Management Plan
Mobilization Planning
Governance Model/ Responsibility assignment
Resource Planning
Project Budgeting
Scheduling
Codes of Practice
Conflict Management

>>Stage 4 - Project Monitoring Stage

Risk Management
Quality Control Plan
Progress Evaluation/ Productivity Analysis
As built vs Scope Evaluation

>>Stage 5 - Project Completion Stage

Preliminary Handover
Lessons Learnt
Post Project Analysis (Commercial/ Technical)
Direct/ Indirect Marketing

As Built documentation
Maintenance planning
Commissioning/ Final Handover