Program Management with Ease: It’s All About Balance
If you are a program manager in the tech world, then here is a statistic that should concern you: 75% of IT programs fail or are destined to fail from the start. Ouch. Can you relate? I think many of us can. From my experiences and discussions with some of the major achievers in the industry, I have learned that they spend 80% of their time on reshaping their programs. It is such a waste of resources, talent, and money.
Is it really possible to have a program that meets the business’ requirements and main objectives? Can your program really be delivered on schedule within the budget allocated and also result in value and a good ROI?
While we all live in the real world, where this seems very challenging and a dream, it really is doable. First, however, it helps to understand what is holding us back so that we know what to watch out for.
What is preventing project managers from consistently reaching their goals?
Can you name the 4 biggest culprits that drag down productivity? Time and again, this is what I have been told across the IT industry:
unrealistic expectations
lack of transparency and trust
poor understanding of the importance of human emotion value
insufficient communication
That probably sounds familiar. While these issues are frustratingly common, the good news is that it doesn’t have to be this way. Successfully managing programs and leaving these problems behind ultimately comes down to two things: understanding that human emotions are just as important as deadlines and even budgets and finding a healthy balance between the two.
When we do, programs click. Deadlines are met, the final product exceeds a client’s expectations, and team members feel valued. No one can argue that spending far less time reshaping and redoing the work isn’t better, so let’s look more closely at how any project manager can make that happen.
The solution: a balanced focus
As program managers, we have very tough jobs because we have multiple balls to juggle every day, sometimes as many as 20 or 30. We must be able to see everything from a different angle, deal with each situation patiently, and handle the pressure. That requires, you guessed it, a balanced focus on everything.
To achieve this, we must do 4 things that are challenging but pay off in the long run:
Conduct thorough planning before we ever get started on a project
Execute diligently and in a timely manner
Communicate well with our team members and clients
Set realistic, correct expectations for stakeholders
Remember that they are all equally significant. Doing well with just three can still lead to the failure of a program, so we must become experts in all of them.
Common mistakes in program management
Program managers must always value their resources, including time, budget, and people. In my own experience, I have seen people make mistakes by giving value only to budget and time. Those are important, of course, but because they did not give value to the individual who was actually working on the programs, the outcomes were not as good as they could have been.
For example, I once worked with a project manager who was excellent at managing budgets. He was the perfect choice to lead a project with a very strict budget, but he failed to communicate to the client what they could reasonably expect to receive in return. This made his team lose the quality of the product.
While I stepped in to support my peer and came up with creative ways to discuss the project’s scope and approved budget with the client and management, it would have been far better to do this from the beginning. That way, the project manager would not have lost control of the project’s quality or made the customer unhappy.
The takeaway for all program managers
Program management is a valuable skill that all companies should allocate some portion of their budgets towards. It is not just a course which you take in college or a degree you earn. Instead, it is a creative thought process to manage. Done well, you can handle any situation and achieve success with your team.
So, remember to never set unrealistic expectations. Over-communicate so that you are transparent and build trust. Lastly, never underestimate the value of human emotion. Then, get ready to see your projects take off and your team outperform your expectations. That is success, and you deserve to have it.
