Managing Successful Programs : An Overview.

Quick rundown on what are key skills & expertise that helps to manage the programs successfully. First and the most important aspect is how well we connect with our customer and how soon we speak the language of our customer, which really helps to get the connect with customer and their stakeholders.

Business Context/Knowledge: The person who is in charge of the program should have the complete knowledge on the Customer Business in terms of revenue generation model, and their customer base etc.

Broader View/Vision: Scope of the program is much larger than the project and in most of the cases program contains more than one project stream in it. Hence it’s inevitable for the program manager to have the broader vision of the program that would help to streamline the projects in it.

Antedate Customer Needs/Solutions: We need to provide solution upfront before even customer identify the problem. Fierce market condition deprives the luxury of attention. Customers are not interested to wait anymore for wireframe. They instead ask for prototype for which they might prepare their business specifications.

Effective Communication: What do we mean by effective communication? Everyone communicates and people who communicate effectively influence the people with less time. Communication is not only speaking/presenting but also formal and informal mail communications and how effectively facilitates the meetings etc.

Stakeholder Management: Stakeholders are groups, organizations or individuals who can affect, get affected, or perceive themselves to be affected by a programme. The stakeholder response is critical as some may oppose and some support. So the threat can come from within and hence it’s important to have the buy-in of the stakeholders as some may stand to gain or lose, some may see the program as a threat or some will support. It cannot be a mixed bag. What about the human resources? They too can become stakeholders Resources given their competency and skill.