Program Management Overview

A Program is a collection of Projects that are related to one another and often managed and coordinated as a group.  

The above definition itself explains the concept of Program Management too. Program Management, however, can be defined as the collective management of Projects that are meant to accomplish a common business goal.

Say an organization’s Portfolio has multiple projects running at the same time. Many of these projects are independent, having distinct business objectives, while a few projects could be similar in terms of business objectives or any other attribute. These dependent or related projects require coordinated management and thus comes Program or Program Management into action. A Program works as an umbrella for all related Projects and provides the necessary management arrangements. 

(Note - The above definition does not suggest that we use a Program only to group the existing Projects. Depending on the business requirement, a Portfolio or Program manager can create a Program and later create Projects within it to achieve the goal.)

As explained in the Root Objects Overview, in the hierarchy, Programs come between the Portfolio and Projects (not mandatorily, always). Thus has many similarities with Portfolio. Similar to Portfolio, a Program is a collection of Projects. But unlike a Portfolio, which contains independent Programs and Projects, a Program is often comprised of dependent or related Projects. 

Besides, a Program allows the creation of ideas, demands, and requirements on the Program level. These are different from the ones we create under Portfolio and thus can be managed by a Program manager too. 

Program Management roles

The following end-user roles are for the Program Management module of the Portfolio Management application.

Portfolio Master

The Portfolio Master has complete access to a Program. They can create and edit projects and demands in all the programs. For more details, see Product Roles under Orientation. 

Portfolio Manager

The Portfolio Manager can create and edit projects and demands in the programs provided they are assigned as the portfolio manager of the parent portfolio of the program. For more details, see Product Roles under Orientation. 

Program Manager

Program Managers can create and edit projects and demands in the programs to which they are assigned as the program managers. For more details, see Product Roles under Orientation. 

End-to-end process

The following figure provides an overview of the Program lifecycle.

The program management process consists of the following procedures for handling program.

1. The portfolio manager/master logs in to Portfolio Management application and creates a new program following the steps given in Creating-Programs.
2. The program is created in 'Ramp-Up' status. The portfolio manager fills in the details and assigns a program manager/assignee for the program (if needed), see Viewing-and-updating-program-details. 
3. Upon assigning, the assigned program manager gets a notification. For more details, see Notification-Matrix. 
4. The program manager re-visits the data on associated Requirements/Demands/Ideas which gives a clear picture of Projects that needs to be initiated and work on to achieve the organization's goal. The program manager takes a deeper look at the associated Requirement, Ideas, and Demand details to understand the overall Budget, Cost and Goals which is getting achieved while fulfilling this
5. The program manager updates the status of the program to 'Active' by following the steps in Changing-Program-Statuses, projects are implemented with specific objectives concerning requirements and demands in the Program.
6. The program manager can change the status of the program to 'Ramp - Down' by following the steps in Changing Program Statuses, for any of the following reasons:
   • Circumstances Changes
   • Business Justification
   • Financial Hold
   • Customer Hold
7. Once projects, demands, ideas, and requirements are completed, the program manager sets the status of the program to 'End of life', see Changing-Program-Statuses.

Program Management data access model

The Program Management application uses row-level security (RLS) to control access to the record and fields. RLS is applied by using Security Labels in BMC Helix Innovation Studio.

The following table describes the Security Labels required for Portfolio Management: