Project & Program Management

Knowledge Area Definition

Project Management is the process and activity of planning, organizing, leading, and controlling resources, procedures and protocols to achieve specific goals (products, services, etc.). The primary challenge of project management is to achieve all of the project goals and objectives while honoring the preconceived constraints. The primary constraints are scope, time, quality and budget. The secondary and more ambitious challenge is to optimize the allocation of necessary inputs and integrate them to meet pre-defined objectives.

Program Management is the process of managing several related projects. The program manager has oversight of the purpose and status of the projects in a program and can use this oversight to support project-level activity to ensure the program goals are met.

Value Proposition

Considerable value can be achieved by understanding the CII research teams’ findings and the application of the tools. For example:

• Learn which practices, techniques, processes, and technology are most effective for managing a portfolio of projects.
• The data shows that high use of change management best practices results in over 11% cost improvement for owners, reduces project schedule, improves job quality and enhances team relationships.
• A radical 25% reduction is possible if the key drivers are present and the barriers addressed.
• Understand when formal Interface Management will deliver better cost performance and improved risk identification and mitigation.

Topic Summaries