What are the challenges of programme management?

Programme management has become a successful management approach and has been accepted in a number of sectors. Perhaps surprisingly however, it is still not widely adopted in the construction industry.

In ‘Construction programme management theory and practice: Contextual and pragmatic approach’ Shehu, et al. (2009) outline how programme management is not a common feature in the construction field.

After conducting research, the report explained that only 33.6% of participants interviewed stated that they have received exhaustive information about programme management. Furthermore, only 39.5% asserted that programme management was deployed in their work routine. However, 80% argued that they would consider implementing programme management if they were equipped with detailed information about its benefits.

Below, you can explore the major challenges to programme management in the construction industry. This has been adapted from Shehu & Akintoye (2010).

Factor	Major challenges include:
Strategic focus	A lack of cross functional working; a lack of an alignment of projects to strategy; a lack of coordination between projects; conflicting project objectives; defining a clear mission for the programme; a lack of programme delivery infrastructure and a lack of relevant training.
Human and communication	The perception that the programme will serve as an obstacle to the timely accomplishment of projects; resistance to organisational change; people constraints; a lack of knowledge of portfolio management techniques and a lack of resources to analyse project data.
Financial factors	Initial funding and on-going operational costs to the organisation; a lack of financial skills of project staff; financial constraints; a lack of a clear company strategy; and a lack of an appropriate way to measure projects benefits.
Leadership and commitment	A lack of knowledge to evaluate risks; frequent project scope changes; a lack of commitment from business leaders; late delivery of projects and a lack of cross-functional communication.
Strategy and awareness	Too many unrelated projects; disappointment with the final programme benefits; presenting a detailed description of the intended roles of a Project Management Office in the organisation and a lack of understanding of the value proposition that programme management provides.
Benefits understanding	A lack of understanding of the role of programme management in the organisation and a lack of awareness of associated benefits.

How can you overcome these challenges?

You have explored the challenges involved in managing a programme. How can you avoid these and ensure you manage your programme successfully?

Programmes in the IT sector have been studied extensively in the last decade. In particular, Ribbers et al. (2012, p.51-52) provide some useful conclusions about the best practices that should be applied in order to efficiently manage an IT programme.

Here you can read an extract adapted from their advice about managing a programme.

Coordination

The main aspect to focus on is coordination. This is particularly crucial with suppliers, across individual projects, and to achieve process efficiency. The least successful programmes are usually those that fail to identify the right interface between sub-projects.

Implementation

The implementation of IT programmes requires strict adherence to a 'no change policy' in the rollout phase. It is important to have clear guidelines and project design, ensuring these do not change during the execution phase.

Complexity

With high integration complexity, you need to organise the programme for complete alignment mechanisms (such as implementing reviews, steering committees, and release control). The focus of steering committees should be on controlling planned changes (integration complexity) and less on unexpected changes.

Differentiation

Successful programmes differentiate their implementation approaches according to how complex the projects are. They adjust the number of parallel rollout activities to the static complexity. They also organise business and IT related changes during the parallel activities, according to the integration needs.

Please refer to the glossary to check any terminology you are unfamiliar with: Glossary of Project Management Terms

Coming up....

In the next section you will explore a definition of a portfolio.