Progressive Intelligence Consulting Group
Global Governance & Program Scope Management
"Excellent firms don't believe in excellence - only in constant improvement and constant change." -- Tom Peters
Global Governance Approach
A global governance approach to Program Portfolio Management begins with project conceptualization, typically by the project stakeholder who will end up sponsoring the project. Global Governance of this process will dictate the method, tools, templates, and procedure to follow, to gain approval to proceed with the project.
Once established, global governance will provide enterprise-wide structure and discipline to:
- program risk management,
- change management, e.g., Change Control Board,
- internal resource management,
- external resource contracts,
- establishing a project management office,
- acting as liaison with senior management, and
- program scope management, monitoring and control.
Global governance, typically implemented as an Enterprise Program Management Office, or an EPMO, is critical for more complex, international project management and managing multiple projects and programs on a global scale.
The pillars of Global Governance, from the foundation of business objectives to business value.
Program Scope Management
Since the Program is not a single project, but rather a collection of projects, the scope will relate to the collective objectives of all of the projects. While individual project teams will manage the respective scope of an individual project, the program manager will be responsible for overall Program Scope Management.
Scope management begins with three main sources of information:
A very thorough definition of requirements
Business, technical, and operational, and associated acceptance or success criteria
Scoping information from project initiation documents
Project Charter, Project Mandate, Project Business Case, etc.
Scope of Work or “Statement of Work” (SOW)
Project activities, tasks, deliverable, and milestone information from supplier and vendor contracts, and project initiation documents
The requirements provide a view of the “end state” of the project or program, from the end user (internal) perspective. These requirements must align with acceptance criteria to ensure that the project activities address and satisfy the specific requirement.
Project initiation documents provide a view of current state and end state, from the perspective of the project owner or project sponsor. Program Scope is a perspective of the transition from current state to end state, the steps in between and the final “product”.
In addition to a disciplined, rigorous approach to Change Management, monitoring the progress of an initiative or project against the schedule and budget enables management to quickly find problems and apply a corrective action. Measuring performance and progress involves techniques such as variance calculations, trending analysis, and Earned Value (EV) calculations.
Project Management Methodologies
Worldwide, the two primary project management methodologies are:
Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK), developed and copyrighted by the Project Management Institute (PMI).
PRojects IN Controlled Environments (PRINCE), now in its second major revision it is called PRINCE2, developed and trademarked through the UK government’s Office of Government Commerce (OGC).
Since there are strengths and weakness of both methodologies, it is possible to use the best of both and adapt the combined methodology to the project and the organization. For example, PRINCE2 has a very strong focus on deliverable definition, quality, and acceptance; while PMBOK is heavily weighted in the areas of planning and resource management. Also, PMBOK takes a “client-side” perspective, while PRINCE2 is a “supplier-side” perspective.
In addition to these two methodologies, there are many more approaches to managing projects and programs. Many of these are process based and originate from a particular industry or technique. These approaches include, the Rational Unified Process (RUP), the IPMA Competency Baseline (ICB), Agile Project Management, and Lean Sigma or DMAEC.
Change Control Board – Program Change Management
Effective and methodical Change Control is critical to the success of any business initiative or project. Change Management procedures and tools, such as a Change Request (CR) form, must be documented, approved by all project or program stakeholders, and included as part of the execution and management plan. An effective Change Management procedure is your primary method to control “scope creep” and overall scope management.
Your organization's Change Management process should be simple, well documented, and follow a procedure previously agreed to, initially by senior management and then by project stakeholders. In addition, your Change Control Board must be senior-level stakeholders, including the project sponsor/owner and the project manager. If the Change Control Board is part of a PMO, or at a program-level, the program manager will be a regular participant and the individual project manager’s participation will be limited to his/her CR’s.
Effective Change Management may be the single most critical procedure to ensuring effective scope management.
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