Program Organization in FEW easy steps

Start your program on the right foot!

WAIT that your Program Director is assigned to the program and ensure that he/she takes over from this point on. Too often, execs make decisions on the program strategy, budget, ressources... and expect the new upcoming Program Director to be accountable to deliver objectives and targets they did not define.

This happens all the time and really puts your program at risk to start with - companies are so in fire when the charter gets signed that they rush into taking many organizational decisions without having the Program Director involved.

This typically leads to a lack of engagement and commitment from the Program Director and from the delivery team. Instead of going too far to launch the program without a Program Director, put all your energy, as an executive, on hiring THE CREAM OF THE CREAM PROGRAM DIRECTOR!!!!!

For large programs (50M+), the program organization activities will not be less than 3 to 6 months in timeframe. Do not underestimate the time it takes to structure accordingly a program or a project. The organization and planning activities are precious and do have a high ROI. On the other hand, do not overspend money in this phase to try to make it perfect. Ensure that the organization is robust without expecting that it will be perfect to the teeth. Incorporate a process to leave room to continuous improvement. Just make sure that your level of investment is just for this phase. The key activities will include usually the following subset of activities after you appoint your program director.

• Organizing the Governance, build the committees
• Develop the Program Organizational structure 
• Define your Program Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)
• Organize the finance
• Clarify and define Roles and Responsibilities (RACI + Job roles)
• Develop the Program Management Framework (Processes, procedures and tools)

Program Governance 

You need to define early how the program will be governed to ensure the program success. the different governance entities will be identified:

• THE project sponsor,
• THE steering committee members (formed of senior executives such as division VPs+ sponsor+Program mgt group) at a minimum
• THE working committee members (formed of business directors and managers+program mgt leadership) and
• THE program committee (formed of the program management leadership group)

The creation of the governance structure needs to be worked out closely with the project sponsor as he/she will need to approve the governance entity. You will also need to identify the members of the committees / sponsor should confirm with peers in the business the appointments of committee members.

Program Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)

WBS is defined in the parallel planning activities that are going on while you start to organize your project. The WBS needs to be thought through early in the process as it is an important input in the organization phase. It helps structuring your project and helps you to build the RACI that we will talk later on (to clarify the roles and responsibilities). The way you structure your WBS is therefore critical - it has to be easy to understand and has to be logical. Just think of it like a bill of material; think of how you would decompose a desk, you decompose it with key component types right?. WBS should not be complicated it should be simple. Do not forget that the WBS will be mapped into your project plan in your planning activities.

Program Organizational structure development
Once your governance entities are defined and you understand your WBS, you can confirm the teams you will need to have in your organization.

Always have the Program Director as the only one reporting to Steering and Sponsor. I found Strong matrix organizations most appropriate for large programs. Ensure in this case that all team members have a hard line to your program director. I am a hold fashion type of manager when it comes time to manage resources. I rarely seem resources extremely happy in a weak matrix organization - it often creates ambiguity. Do not let stakeholders keep a hard line with program resources in the Program Organisational Chart. This brings too much confusion and distraction for nothing. You can Structure your teams by competency or by Work packages what ever makes the most sense. In large programs you could have co-leadership: assign a business leader and an IT leader. do not let IT drive the show alone!

Roles and Responsibilities (RACI + Job roles)

Your RACI is a matrix that will provide an overview of who is Responsible Accountable Consulted and Informed for each of the First/Second levels of your WBS. Typically the first column is the WBS and there is one column by job roles to build the matrix. You need to validate the RACI with the directors and the business so that everyone has a clear understanding and agreement on the roles to be. GET YOUR RACI approved.

Once your RACI is approved, you can build your job roles! It is important to have a Job Description for each of the roles to be filled in the project. Along the way, you might have some replacements or new players and it will be easy for HR to help you out if you already have every roles clearly documented. Also, you will be using the job role summary the project kick-off and to assign resources to the project.

Program Management Framework (Processes, procedures and tools)
This is the part that I love the most! Providing a framework! Standards key framework components for an IT project can be;

• Risk Management
• Issue Management
• Time & Expense Management
• Logistics
• Document Management
• Program and Project Reporting
• Resource Management
• Purchasing Management
• Cost Management
• Benefit Management

If your PMO does not already have a framework, you can either ask a consulting firm to get a framework implemented or you can build one from scratch. My thought is that any good consulting firm can provide such a framework with fresh ideas and tools attached to the framework. It is very time consuming to construct from scratch... If you have time and tight budget; go a head and build it internally - - - If you do not have time and have a budget, use a consulting firm.

I like to have a folder by framework component and a separate folder for the project management standard TEMPLATES. I am from KISS school, do not build a 200 page document for your framework - people will just get so lost! Just be to the point! Say what you have to say about the process and that's it! Show few slides on the process in Powerpoint including your flowcharts and have a separate document for specific procedures. If appropriate save your visio file in a third file for people to view when needed.

You might want to look at tools that can facilitate your life and lower your project costs down the road! Assess your needs meticulously, spend money wisely on tools! Don't get Primavera or MsServer if you have few projects. Investiguate your tools - Excel is OK but I am personally not a big fan of it now that we have so many fresh affordable collaborative tools. Look at all the tools offered in the market it changes fast. CONFLUENCE did impress me lately.

Let me know if you have other thoughts or wish you comment, hope this was helpful