Programs and programs

My recent work has included a lot of interaction with human services businesses. They use the word 'program' differently from its use in generic project management; indeed, even the public sector based Prince2 system conceives as programs exclusively in such terms too. (in the MSP system).

In human services, 'program' when it is not applied to infrastructure, for example, the hospital construction program, means, not a collection of related projects, but a systemic intervention to bring change in people's lives; the 'people' are usually known as the 'target group' (in the Army we used 'target' to mean something we would obliterate...not so here, of course!).

These programs are based on what it terms a 'program logic model'. This sets out how the program will work to effect the results in peoples lives that it sets out to achieve. Conceptually much like an infrastructure project.

The PLM works back from the results to 'Inputs' via (in backwards order): Outcomes, resulting from Outputs, resulting from Activities, detemined, or defined by Resources or Inputs selected on the basis of Need or Opportunity.

Again, there is an obvious resemblance to the typical project course.

Where the major difference is is in the Activities-Outputs-Outcome set. This trio is a constant cycle that operates for the duration of the program, and may be a permanent operation, for all practical purposes. For example, the 'road safety program'.

The PLM is not only a plan (at high level) but a means of inquiry into the program; so it forms the basis for definition, specification, design and delivery; much like a schedule; but brings together schedule, WBS and delivery in one unit.

A typical PLM is below.

Top level project report

I posted this comment on a recent Linkedin PM forum, to the request for the items that a CEO report should contain for a project.

At the very top level: the current forecast outturn cost, compared to current budget; the current forecast completion date, compared to current approved completion date; earned value status, dollars committed, number of unresolved issues in an aged table (e.g. unresolved for 2 weeks, 1 month, 2 months) and current value at risk.

 Now for some detail.

The critical information for a CEO is how much will this cost and when will it be finished. This 
would be compared to either the business case or the current approved state of the project.

Reports should have a graph of all previous forecasts to show trends.

 A subsidiary interest would be the expected NPV of the project compared to the business case, or current approved NPV. For some CEOs this would be critical. Indeed, for all, it should be!

Earned value status is an obvious one; but if a formal EVM system is not used, it can be given an approximation: how much was estimated to be spent for a certain state of production, compared to how much was actually spent. If the contract has an estimated cash flow, this could be an input to tracking this.

However, all these are backwards looking. The CEO would need to have information about the project's future.

Two proxy indicators that could be reported are:

• dollars committed (that is, subject to contracts with suppliers and sub-contractors). Comparing these against cash flow projection can be used to assess the project productivity.
• aged tracking of issues from the issues log. The number of  open issues over time would give an indication of the general project state and performance. If notified issues won't do it, then it could be decisions pending, or contractor claims unresolved (i.e. yet to be agreed, accepted or rejected).

The final item is current value at risk. I'm assuming here that the project has a quanitified and costed assessed risk. As the project advances, some risks retire, and the final project cost becomes more secure in a tighter range, but others may emerge, change or be costed more accurately. This might lead to an increase in either the final out-turn cost or the expected range of that cost (e.g. project is 80% certain to cost between $10m and $11m). 

An example of a similar report format is below, for illustration. It is also worth referring to the One Page Project Manager for another, more operational, approach.