“Project Manager” and “Program Manager” - while some people
use these words interchangeably, they are in fact two different roles.
Let me try to identify some key difference in this post.
Project Manager
|
Program Manager
|
|
Definition
|
Project - is a set of
tasks, performed to achieve a specific goal, which has limited resources and timeline.
|
Program - is composed of
multiple inter related projects, which aligns with long-term business objective
for an organizational strategy.
|
Role
|
Manages single or multiple projects and in many organizations reports to a
Program Manager.
|
Manages multiple projects and might manage multiple programs. They generally
report into senior leadership of the organization.
|
Deals with
|
Manages the project teams and executes the project with defined scope,
schedule and resources. They have a deeper view of the projects being managed.
|
May interact with multiple project teams, but don’t manage them.
Instead they have a broader view of the projects and are responsible for the program
outcome.
|
Responsible for
|
Delivering successful project outcomes - ensuring it is on time,
within budget and has quality output.
|
Delivering successful program outcomes and ensuring that the program
delivers ROI.
|
Let me give a simple example to explain the difference between
a Project and a Program.
Assume that a company XYZ has decided to adopt cloud strategy.
In this case they could initiate a program for “Cloud Adoption”. This program could
have multiple projects given below:
- Cloud provider assessment project
- Cloud migration pilot project
- Application migration project
- Existing data center movement project
- And many more …
Comments
Post a Comment