Program management vs.
project
management.
Programs and projects are at the heart of many business endeavors. To use
a metaphor, projects are like trains operated by project managers, who help
pull the work of a team to achieve goals and ultimately arrive with a finished
good or service.
To continue with the metaphor, a program is like a collection of trains
running on different tracks, yet headed to the same station, or goal. The
program manager is the station conductor, directing the various project
trains.
What is program management?
Program management is the process of managing programs mapped to
business objectives that improve organizational performance. Program
managers oversee and coordinate the various projects and other strategic
initiatives throughout an organization.
Program managers also help to drive organizational change by helping
with agile transformations, including helping to implement DevOps practices
and principles. Program managers may align program management
practices and processes with agile values such as collaboration, team
autonomy and empowerment, delivering value to customers, and adapting to
change in the moment. A program manager can bring agile and DevOps to
life for teams across large programs or individual projects by tailoring
programs to the specific requirements and opportunities of the business.
Program management vs. project management
Program management is sometimes confused with project management.
Project management is the process of leading a project performed by a team
to achieve certain goals, such as building a new product.
A project represents a single, focused piece of work with a specific scope and
defined output. Projects can run for several years, but their main focus
remains the same. A project’s success can be measured by the delivery of
artifacts and deliverables that roll up to a program’s larger goals.
Project management is the process of delivering value that incrementally
moves a program forward. Despite the emphasis on artifacts and
deliverables, project management still involves strategy and planning, since
a project manager must determine how to meet the goals laid out at the
beginning of the project. Once a project is underway, a project manager
tracks progress, allocates resources, manages risks, communicates, and
more.
Program management entails managing a program with multiple, related
projects. Since programs are linked to strategic initiatives, they are often
long-running and possibly permanent. Programs continue through
organizational change, contribute to multiple goals, and contain many
projects that deliver specific components of the larger strategic initiative.
At the highest level, a project generally focuses on outputs, while a
program focuses on outcomes.
Projects have:
A set of tasks with a clear deliverable and a deadline for completion
Relates to creating, updating, or reviewing a particular document,
process, outcome, or another single unit of work
A predefined scope that is limited to a specific output
Improves quality, efficiency, cost management, or customer
satisfaction in a specific and predetermined way
Programs have:
Unknown or fluid deadlines due to the large scope and impact of the
work that must be done continuously over a long period of time
Multiple deliverables with inter-related dependencies that may
continue to evolve based on changing business needs
A series of deliverables completed together to increase efficiency,
accuracy, reliability, or other business needs
The work enables the company to achieve a long-term business goal or
initiative that will run in perpetuity
Success delivers long-term benefits or unlocks new capabilities for the
organization
What does a program manager do?
Program managers need to balance delivering artifacts, engaging with
strategic decisions, managing stakeholders, and mitigating risks across the
program. In a fully empowered organizational program, program managers
should be able to solve — or connect to people who can solve — and plan to
mitigate any problem that impacts the strategic initiative they seek to
achieve.
Because of the breadth of their responsibilities, program managers play a
key enabling role in companies. The role is flexible by design to meet the
different challenges that teams encounter while going to production.
On any given day a program manager may do any of the following tasks:
Evaluate the state of the portfolio
A program manager reviews and evaluates a portfolio by connecting with
teams to identify any risk mitigation or improvement opportunities. These
connections can be coffee chats or team meetings. The program manager’s
goal is to stay connected and engaged enough to work in lockstep towards
shared goals. This includes connecting with project teams to ensure the
project managers are supported and unblocked.
Manage risks
Risk management is a key element of portfolio management. Risks include a
project timeline slipping, changing requirements, or the discovery of
additional stakeholders. A program manager should be aware of anything
that could impact the progress or outcome of the program and related
projects. Ideally, a program manager can take corrective actions to reduce or
manage risks in the portfolio.
Run the program
Program managers are responsible for running the program, which includes:
Managing budgets and resources in cooperation with project managers
Defining the operating parameters and controls
Maintaining the core elements of the program that set the foundation from
team charters and other establishing documents
Engage with stakeholders
A program manager connects with stakeholders to get a sense of the wider
context that surrounds goals. These conversations provide key insights into
the overall landscape. By partnering with stakeholders, a program manager
can help guide project teams.
Refine the operating model
The operating model shapes how teams progress toward their goals. This
can include establishing communication channels and reporting methods,
identifying goals, establishing priorities across the entire program. During
the course of a program, a program manager optimizes the operating model
to increase the likelihood of success and reduce the impact of risks.
Support decisions
Decision-making takes many forms, from running a meeting with decision-
makers, to compiling background information on what decisions are needed,
or doing a comparative analysis of multiple options. Specific program
managers may lean into different areas, depending on their strengths. The
program manager reviews outcomes to identify opportunities for
improvement in systems, processes, or results.
The focus and scope of each program manager shape the specifics of how
they engage with these practices.
What does a project manager do?
A typical day for a project manager can include:
Checking on the status of a deliverable to determine whether it will be
delivered on time and within budget
Reviewing a queue to identify new work, monitor existing tasks, and unblock
specific elements for the project team
Create a plan for how to reach a specific milestone that describes the
stakeholder management and communications opportunities
Ensure that project work meets the quality and reliability requirements
established at the beginning of the project
As you can see, program and project managers work on highly related tasks.
The primary difference between these two roles is scope and ambiguity:
Projects are scoped tightly and controlled from the beginning, while programs
have a larger scope that may change over the course of the program.
Projects have limited ambiguity because success has been clearly defined at
the start, while programs need to work through ambiguity to define what
needs to be done and how to conceptualize “success” for the overall
program.
Program manager Project manager
Plans strategies Plans projects
Provides advice to
Tracks progress of projects
stakeholders
Review and advise on
Allocates resources
projects
Offers audits and QA Manage risks
Mentorship to project teams Communicate
workflows
When implementing a workflow for the team, always start simple. Fight the
temptation to spend weeks (over-)engineering it. Overly complex workflows
are hard to understand and adopt–not to mention adapt. For software teams,
we recommend these basic workflow states:
TO DO
Work that has not been started
IN PROGRESS
Work that is actively being looked at by the team
CODE REVIEW
Work that is completed and awaiting review
DONE
Work that is completely finished and meets the team's definition of done
In an issue tracker, these statuses flow from one to the next using transitions
that structure the workflow.
Some software teams include additional states in their workflow that help
them track the status of work more precisely.
9 best Scrum tools for project management
Many factors impact which Scrum tool is the best for your project. Some
factors to consider include the size and structure of your team, the
complexity of your projects, other tools you want to integrate, budget
constraints, and training requirements. The following are nine top Scrum
tools used by project managers and Scrum masters:
1. Best for backlog management: Jira
Jira is the #1 choice among Agile software development teams. It includes
templates to break down complex projects into manageable tasks for
effective backlog refinement and sprint planning. With real-time visual status
updates, teams can quickly respond to changes and roadblocks. It also
supports remote and geographically dispersed teams seamlessly with
always-up-to-date task scheduling and tracking.
2. Best for documentation and knowledge management:
Confluence
With Confluence, you can house all documents and related information in a
central repository. Whether it’s customer surveys, requirements documents,
product strategy, or other supporting data, you can seamlessly integrate
knowledge management into the product development lifecycle and
streamline collaboration.
3. Best for sprint planning: Jira
Jira makes sprint planning easier by putting the backlog at the center. It
helps the team estimate stories, adjust scope, and prioritize issues in one
location.
4. Best for sprint retrospective: Confluence whiteboards
With Confluence whiteboards, teams can brainstorm, visualize, and turn
ideas into action in real time or asynchronously. With features like stamps,
votes, and timers, teams can make collaborative decisions and then edit Jira
issues and other pages without leaving the whiteboard. This makes Scrum
ceremonies like a sprint retrospective easy.
5. Best for prioritizing ideas and building roadmaps: Jira Product
Discovery
Jira Product Discovery offers features for prioritizing ideas and building
roadmaps. It allows teams to bring insights and ideas together, collaborate,
and create a product roadmap everyone can support.
6. Best for virtual meetings: Zoom
Zoom virtual meetings erase the distance between geographically dispersed
team members. With Zoom’s extensive features, teams can host virtual
meetings and collaborate in real-time. They can also record meetings and
decisions for those who can't attend.
7. Best for real-time communication: Slack
Slack offers easy access and real-time targeted communication when just a
few team members need to quickly share information or ask questions.
Channels allow teams to create focused areas, such as C++ developers
working on a specific product, to keep tasks moving forward without
unnecessarily interrupting others.
8. Best for team collaboration: Jira
Jira allows teams to manage projects across the company, giving members
real-time project data. Create dependencies and build automations so you
overlook nothing, especially when disparate groups are working on the same
project.
9. Best for iteration planning: Trello
Trello’s easy-to-use, highly visual interface for project management supports
small teams with iteration planning, automating repetitive tasks, and
tracking sprints. It also integrates with commonly used tools such as Slack.
