Program Management Best Practices for Transformations and Implementations

Discover program management best practices for successful transformations and implementations, including key methodologies and tools.

In brief:

• Program management best practices align multiple projects with strategic objectives through structured frameworks, governance systems, and clear accountability measures.
• Successful program managers balance tactical execution with strategic vision by using modern tools like artificial intelligence (AI) and methodologies to enhance adaptability and mitigate risks.
• You can measure a program’s success through metrics including benefit realization, return on investment (ROI), and customer satisfaction and continuously improve the program based on feedback.

In order for your organization’s digital transformations and technology implementations to roll out smoothly, you need well-structured program management to effectively manage stakeholder expectations.

A robust program management system provides a structured framework that enables managers to align projects with strategic objectives, making sure each initiative adds value. Program management best practices — such as detailed project planning, risk management, and resource management — help you maintain focus on project goals.

Program managers play a pivotal role in orchestrating successful transformations. Tools like artificial intelligence (AI) and project management software, alongside methodologies such as Agile, can enhance project execution and agility, address evolving stakeholder needs, and mitigate risks promptly.

Maintaining a clear vision and coherent program management plan will help managers deliver successful project outcomes. This plan ensures both immediate and long-term benefits from robust technology implementations and digital transformations.

We explore the points above in this article, starting with the differences between program and project management.

Project Management vs. Program Management

Project management involves strategizing and delivering successful outcomes for projects, even very short-term, one-off projects that live in isolation.

Program management is typically larger in scope and involves a collection of projects that all work together to achieve a specific outcome. For example, a digital transformation program may consist of a series of projects, each managed by a project manager. One project may involve data cleaning that makes it possible to port data from a legacy system to a cloud-based one.

In this case, the program management office (PMO) would connect with the data cleaning project manager or team to make sure their work aligns with the overall goals of the digital transformation program.

Once you understand the difference between program and project management, it’s time to set up a framework for creating consistent and successful programs.

Build a Robust Program Management Framework

Building a framework is one of the most important program management best practices because it results in replicable, high-quality programs. The consistent outcomes you’ll achieve also give credence to your PMO.

Core components of effective program management include:

• Defining the program’s vision
• Clearly establishing program objectives
• Defining the scope of the program
• Making sure everyone understands their responsibilities
• Establishing standard processes and baseline quality expectations

Governance structures and decision-making frameworks are especially crucial when it comes to overseeing programs and holding all stakeholders accountable. Your governance system should include:

• Well-defined decision trees
• Broad representation of all stakeholders on committees that make important decisions
• Accountability systems that reward success and support those who need help meeting goals

In many cases, your governance system can integrate well with your existing organizational processes. For example, many companies periodically evaluate employee performance. This can be a good chance to check in regarding how well employees are fulfilling their roles in the programs they’re supporting.

Another example includes evaluating governance effectiveness in terms of:

• Active participation in meetings
• Number of key decisions made
• Number of risks mitigated
• Number of lessons learned from another project that improve a different project

The Role of AI and Modern Tools

AI, workflow automation, and other modern tools can ease much of the grunt work associated with robust program management. AI can analyze program health automatically and produce insights that let you know how well each program is delivering on its promise.

Workflow automation makes it easier to establish consistent systems that save employees and managers time. For instance, you can set up an automation that generates a task for the next person in a project chain. They can automatically get an email or message that details what they have to do, things to keep in mind, and deadlines.

Centric Consulting uses a combination of technological tools and years of human experience to foster winning outcomes. We use tools specifically designed to streamline the program management process.

My colleague senior manager and PMO expert Craig Horgan says that one tool he uses is a program handbook: “It’s a one-stop shop for all program-related information that can serve as a communication vehicle on how the program is structured and being managed.”

These kinds of tools eliminate problematic guesswork while providing systemic support. And even if a company doesn’t already have a program management office in place, the right kinds of tools can streamline program manager responsibilities.

Of course, even the best tools are useless without the right skill set. Program management skills involve a combination of tactical, strategic and communication skills.

Skills Required for Effective Program Management

The core skills required for program management include:

• Leadership is especially crucial whenever business transformation is involved. Overarching process changes need leaders with vision and the ability to earn buy-in.
• Communication plays an integral role in all phases, from strategic planning and initial implementation to postimplementation evaluation and debriefing.
• Strategic thinking differentiates someone who can simply work hard from someone who can build an implementation strategy that sets a program up for long-term success.

Tactical vs. Strategic Program Management Skills

What is program management in terms of tactical and strategic skills? Tactical skills are those needed to execute tasks, while strategic program management skills involve using a long-term perspective that ensures the program supports the organization’s overall strategy.

Developing these skills requires a systematic approach rather than merely pigeonholing people into either the tactical or strategic category. In other words, it takes more than teamwork — it requires teamwork built around flexibility.

Centric’s Jennifer Oertli compares a team that emphasizes flexibility to a winning football organization, like the Brady-era Patriots. The Patriots used what Oertli refers to as a “high-trust, high-accountability environment.”

When building tactical and strategic program management skills, you need to trust that those learning one or the other skill set can and will do their best. At the same time, managers need to hold them accountable for embracing and executing the challenge. If someone’s used to calling the plays like a tactical quarterback, they need to be willing to block, run plays, and do the little things that deliver programmatic wins.

At times, upskilling your team can be so much work that it’s infeasible for internal management. That’s when it helps to bring in a third-party expert.

Best Practices for Managing Transformations and Implementations

Robust program management for transformations and implementations is easier to build when you stand on the shoulders of those who’ve already scored big wins. Here are some best practices for effective strategic process planning:

• Identify critical success factors for program delivery. These may involve frequently checking in to see if tactical team members need support or using AI to analyze program progress and outcomes.
• Incorporate risk management and mitigation strategies. Some risks to keep top of mind include missing timelines, going over budget, and low-quality outcomes resulting from employees who rush or attempt tasks without adequate skill.
• Practice proactive risk management. Unlike traditional risk management, which focuses on managing risks only after they’ve occurred, proactive risk management seeks to predict and address problems before they happen.
• Implement what-if scenario modeling. Things never fail or succeed for only one reason. What-if scenario modeling allows you to manipulate multiple variables to discover how different strategies will affect outcomes.
• Integrate change management with program management. As my colleague Cheryl Strait points out, “change management and program management create a strong foundation for you to integrate change into the company better, ensuring better adoption at the project and program levels, regardless of complexity.”

For example, while working with a Fortune 500 financial services company, we helped its program management and change management teams work together to address a visibility gap. The PMO team reached out to the change management office (CMO) team to conduct a change impact assessment focused on features the company was preparing to release. The CMO responded by categorizing the change impact of each new feature as low, medium or high.

The effort resulted in teams getting enough lead time visibility, which enabled them to build their training content in plenty of time for each feature release.

Using this kind of agile management approach — one that considers the organization’s capacity to change and how executives’ knowledge and expertise can help manage the process — works because it ensures that you factor in the needs and expertise of various stakeholders. The result is a more comprehensive program management system.

How to Measure Success in Program Management

To measure the success of your program management system, you need to evaluate each program’s effectiveness in terms of the benefits it delivers. This requires more than simply completing programs on time and on budget. Increasingly, it also involves using key performance indicators (KPIs) to analyze performance.

You need both kinds of measures. Program-related metrics (actual cost, schedule variance, customer satisfaction) provide a detailed view of operational performance, while KPIs, such as cost performance index (CPI), schedule performance index (SPI), and net promoter score (NPS) align to strategic priorities that the program is driving toward.

Here are some other measures that many successful PMOs use:

• Benefit realization ratio. This is the ratio of the benefits a program delivers to the anticipated level of benefits.
• Return on investment (ROI). Typically, your ROI is a ratio of what a program costs to the financial benefits it produces. However, you must be careful with ROI. Some programs may have a high ROI because they didn’t cost much, but they failed to produce adequate profits, and vice versa.
• Improvement to customer satisfaction scores. This is often a key metric for organizations that collect and analyze customer satisfaction data because it can signify higher or lower revenue down the line, depending on how services and products land with customers.
• Profitability. This metric specifically examines the profit a program generates.

After measuring success, you need a system of continuous improvement to foster future wins and avoid replicating mistakes. An effective continuous improvement system often hinges on feedback loops, with the feedback coming from customers, employees or managers. The key is to both collect and apply feedback.

This is also where accountability plays an important role. Managers overseeing the continuous improvement system need to ensure that feedback is incorporated into subsequent programs while quantifying the results of applying the lessons learned.

Build a Successful Program Management System

Digital transformations and technology implementations may have been novelties in the past, but they are now the norm. This puts a heavy burden on your PMO because many, if not all, transformations and implementations will fall on the PMO manager’s desk.

You can start improving your PMO now by using the metrics discussed above to identify quantifiable success factors. With these in hand, you’re ready to establish risk mitigation strategies that reduce the chances of falling short. You can also collaborate with your change management team to better understand how your programs will impact different elements of your organization.

Using these strategies, you can build a robust program management office that manages stakeholder expectations while improving customer satisfaction, speeding up implementation, and increasing value generation — all to turn your most important initiatives into organization-wide wins.

Establishing or reevaluating your PMO so your project prioritization is just right can be a tricky business. Our Enterprise Portfolio and Program Management experts will happily work with you to determine your organization’s next steps for moving forward. Let’s Talk