effective program management practices

8/13/2019 Effective Program Management Practices

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Effective Program Management Practices

Communications of the IBIMA

Volume 5, 2008

16

c

RiskManagment

StakeholderManagement

PerformanceManagement

ContractorManagement

OrganizationChange

Management

Communication&

Governance

Planning

KnowledgeManagement

LegalCompliance


Sandeep Savla, Infosys Technologies Ltd., Fremont, USA, and email: [email protected]

Abstract

Enterprises embarking on the journey oftransforming business face dilemma aboutbalanced risk, effects of change and benefits ofinnovation. Effective management of large businesstransformation programs is necessary to minimizethe negative impacts of the change. Business wouldneed to focus on planning, performance andcontrols, governance models, risks and mitigations,change management and organization readiness,stakeholder management and contractualmanagement. This paper highlights various bestpractices along with the pitfalls to avoid for thesefocus areas.

This white paper is a collation of experiencegathered from large Business transformationinitiative for one of the largest utility companies inUnites States. Additional experiences were collatedbased on strategic consulting assignment inAustralia for a company going through merger andacquisition. These practices are generallyapplicable to multiple programs and needs to befurther tailored to specific requirements.

Intended Audience

Intended audience of the paper is SeniorExecutives, Business partners, Program Managers,Project/Track Leads working with Program

organization groups, PMO and steering committee.Need of effective Program management practices isof high importance in initiatives of followingcharacteristics:

Global implementations involvingdiversified cultural communities

Business transformation programs Large-scale Enterprise architecture

upgrades System Integration initiatives involving

multiple vendors/partners High risk and reward initiatives

This paper is useful for any resources working onabove initiatives.

1. The Program Management Challenge

Program management needs holistic view ofbusiness strategy and its relation to various tracks.Synergy of various teams and their inter-dependencies needs to be managed.Communication plays a very critical role indetermining success of the program.

Program Management is often interpreted as largeProject Management. Project Managers are hired forlarge programs and tendency is to manage like anyother project. Program management needs specialskills beyond the science of project management.Roles of Program manager and project manager needto be distinguished. Need of viewing overall programgoals is needed while managing the programs.

2. Program Management Process

Program management involves focus areas as listedbelow:

Planning

Risk Management Stakeholder Management Performance Management Organization change management Communication Management and

Governance

For purposes of this paper, each of the above focusareas would be covered in next sections. There areother areas like knowledge management, contractor

management, project management which alsocontribute to the process.

3. Planning

Planning involves converting strategic objective toProgram goals. Scope of the program needs to beclearly identified and should synchronize withstrategic objective. Program goals needs to be de-composed into multiple manageable tracks foreffective management and focus. Plan needs to be re-visited and updated on periodic basis. Adherence to

Figure 1 : Program Management Processes


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Minor Serious Severe Major Catastrophic

Almost Certain

Likely

PossibleUnlikely

Rare

Extreme

High

Significant

Moderate

Low

Mitigation action needed

Manage carefully

Manage routinelyLegend

Prob

ability

Severity

Escalate to Steering committee

Immediate action plan needed

plan ensures predictability in outcomes.

Best Practices:

For effective Planning, some of the best practicesinclude:

Create program charter to help provide

direction, scope and program objectives. Constraints, resources, skills needed,

dependencies, assumptions, risks,methodology, implementation plan,control metrics needs to be documentedand communicated.

Organization policies and procedures needto be reviewed to ensure that any practicesbeing implemented are not in conflict withnorms of the organization.

Pitfalls to Avoid:

Program manager should be aware about followingpitfalls to avoid:

It is assumed that Program managementplan is tool for program leads. Each of thesections in the plan has potential impact tovarious stakeholders and hence needs tobe communicated to larger audience.

Plan is not baselined or signed offallowing for constant changes. Managingscope changes is critical for success of theprogram.

It is assumed that Program plan is staticand is needed only for documentationpurposes. Lessons learnt from various life

cycles are effective input for periodicallyrevising the plan.

4. Risk Management

Deviations from desired output need to be managedby strong risk management activities. All risksneeds to be identified, analyzed and mitigated toincrease the probability of success for the program.Addressing risks helps in preventing surprises.

Best Practices:

For effective Risk management, some of the bestpractices include:

Enable Risk scoring framework toeffectively measure the exposure of riskswith respect to probability, impact and costsof mitigation. Risk scoring also helps toescalate high risks to steering committee forfurther action. Refer Figure 2.

Factor the risks (and rewards) in estimationmodels while working on programs.

Identify risk triggers to take proactiveaction.

Pitfalls to Avoid:


Program manager should take input from allstakeholders along with review of historicalrisk logs. There is tendency to cloud the realrisks by unilaterally managing risks basedon own experience.

Prepare Risk management plan at start ofthe program. Risk management needsperiodic monitoring as there are highchances that impact and probability of riskschange over different tracks and life cyclesin the program.

Confusions between Risks, Issues,Assumptions and dependencies needs to bedifferentiated.

5. Stakeholder Management

Large programs usually have many stakeholders whocan potentially impact the program in positive ornegative way. Stakeholder needs and expectationsneed to be managed to ensure a successful program.Support from various stakeholders can be guaranteedonly if they are involved in right decision makingprocess, communication processes and variousplanning meetings.

Best Practices:

For effective Stakeholder management, some of thebest practices include:

Create stakeholder management plan byidentifying stakeholders importance andinfluence on the program.

Understand the conflict of interests betweenkey stakeholders and plan for mitigating anyrisks.Figure 2 : Risk Scoring Framework


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Run program by networking anddeveloping relationships withstakeholders. Transactional mode ofcommunication would not help inunderstanding inherent needs.

Pitfalls to Avoid:


There is tendency to manage onlystakeholders from client sponsors or keystakeholders. Internal team members arealso important stakeholders.

There is tendency to view stakeholders asindividuals or groups. It is important tounderstand inter-dependencies to manageany conflicts. Also, stakeholders influenceeach other to create group thinking.

Level of influence from various

stakeholders is assumed to be constant.Influence is a complex factor of softeraspects and authority of each of thestakeholders.

6. Performance Management

Success of Program depends on its close alignmentwith meeting the business objectives. Alignmentcan be ensured by program governance models andeffectively measuring the performance of theprogram in relation to its needed objectives.Variances needs to be managed by effectivelyimplementing the strategies to reduce the negative

deviations.

Best Practices:

For effective Performance management, some ofthe best practices include:

Identify Critical success factors for theprogram. Metrics needs to be definedaround these to periodically measure theprogress.

Convert program strategy to manageableand defined goals or milestones. IdentifyAnalytical metrics and tools to measurethe same.

Use Quantitative techniques like paretocharts, causal analysis using fish bonediagrams etc to prioritize the causes of thevariances and implement correctiveaction.

Pitfalls to Avoid:


Status reports/ reviews are assumed to beperformance measurement milestones.Status reports seldom measure all identifiedmetrics and focuses only on schedule, costand effort deviations.

Program manager need to define tolerancelimits as variances are imperative in the

programs. Too narrow or wide limits maycause ineffective strategies.

Personal success is directly mapped toprogram success resulting in tendency tocover up the bad news. Magical wands arenot available always to resolve variances atlast minute.

7. Organization Change Management

Large initiatives usually result in organization widechange and can be successful only if organizationreadiness for the change is confirmed. Emotions ofvarious stakeholders have to be managed astransitions are taken up. Change agents have to beenabled and oriented to align all stakeholderstowards the program vision.

Best Practices:

For effective Organization change management,some of the best practices include:

Keeping all the impacted users informedabout the changes always helps towardsgreater acceptability about the change.Avoid unpleasant surprises for thestakeholders impacted by the change.

Take help from senior executives in thecompany and address the need of the changeto the organization. Ensure strongcommitment by key stakeholders driving theprogram.

Develop sustainable plan for the change.

Pitfalls to Avoid:


Avoid tendency to assume the organization

change needs to be taken up during laterphases of the program. Instead, it should beconsidered from ideation phase and is anongoing process.

Avoid perception that Change is difficult tomeasure. Monitoring of effectiveness of thestrategies is needed.

Assuming that stakeholders will follow eachother towards the change can be risky. Aspeople are moved out of comfort zones intonon-comfort zones, there is resistance to


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change. Some stakeholders adapt tochange while others need to be closelytransitioned towards the new change.

8. Communication Management andGovernance

Communication plays a critical role to effectivelymanage interfaces between stakeholders, processesand organizations. Governance structures help inenabling the communication and faster decisionmaking. It also ensures that any decision taken is inthe interest of larger program objective.

Best Practices:

For effective Communication management andGovernance, some of the best practices include:

Governance structure like PMO, Steering

committee, review boards helps indecision making and controlling the scopeof the program. It is important that scopeis within the boundary of program charterto avoid any impacts to he program.

Issue resolution and escalation channelsneeds to be established for removing anyhurdles encountered by any track.

RASCI (R Responsible, A Accountable, S Supporting, C Consulted, I Informed) mapping helps toprepare communication strategy.

Pitfalls to Avoid:


Authority is not enabled in somegovernance structures. To effectivelyperform the role, governance membersalso needs to have authority.

There is tendency to cancel or postponecommunication meetings in times of crisisor bandwidth issues. Communicationmeetings are mandatory and not optionalfor programs.

Feedback is taken only at end of theassignment. Feedback and learning from

lessons is integral part of program process.

9. CONCLUSION

Large business initiatives needs effective Programmanagement practices for enhancing thepredictability of outcomes. Program managementhelps in keeping the focus towards the objectiveand can be managed by various processes. Each ofthe process areas is covered and best practicesalong with pitfalls to avoid were identified. Each

initiative has special characteristics and thesepractices have to be tailored to the needs of theinitiatives to maximize the returns.

Copyright 2008 by the International BusinessInformation Management Association (IBIMA). Allrights reserved. Authors retain copyright for their

manuscripts and provide this journal with apublication permission agreement as a part of IBIMAcopyright agreement. IBIMA may not necessarilyagree with the content of the manuscript. Thecontent and proofreading of this manuscript as wellas and any errors are the sole responsibility of itsauthor(s). No part or all of this work should becopied or reproduced in digital, hard, or any otherformat for commercial use without writtenpermission. To purchase reprints of this articleplease e-mail: [email protected].

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