In the early-90, Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC)
introduced the position of Business Program Manager in
their Professional Services Division. Corporate Senior
Management explained that traditional project managers
focused on the physical delivery of services and
solutions without concern of profitability. In order to
shift the focus of Project Managers from deliverable to
project profit, business units were re-structured into
industry groups known as Line of Business (LOB), and
Senior Project Managers were re-titled as Business
Program Managers ensuring project assignment contribute
to overall profits in their assigned LOB of the
Division.
This clearly identified the differences between programs
and projects. Program is the by-product of a strategic
planning process that aims to deliver the visions of a
future goal (strategic outcomes) while projects are the
various tactics in achieving such strategic objective.
The roots of Program Management are project management
technique and methodology. However, Program Management
focuses on delivering benefits and new capability
instead of deliverable. pdf
