LEADERSHIP & MANAGEMENT IN HEALTH

Program vs. Project Management

Lecturer: Ann Downer, MS, EdD

In this lecture, I want to talk about program management and how it is different from project
management. Notice those two words: project and program. In order to be an effective leader
and manager, it’s useful to know the difference and to have skills in both areas.

So, what is a program and how is it different from a project? Typically, a project is a discrete set
of activities with a beginning and end, whereas a program is a collection of projects.

Maybe it seems like it shouldn’t really matter, but I promise you it does.

Talking about both project management and program management gives us a common
vocabulary, and vocabulary helps us to have clarity about the work that is expected of us and
the skills we need to do it well. I think that’s valuable in and of itself. It helps us become more
proactive.

A lot of the projects I’ve managed in my professional life were quite large. I’ve designed national
curricula. I supervised the launch of ad campaigns. I’ve developed programs like peer education
programs in the schools. Even though they were large projects I was always aware that there
was a larger context or larger environment around my project. I think that’s good to keep that in
mind that the larger context may be your organization, your agency or your unit you work out
of. That larger context is what we would call the program, and that program probably has a
program manager who oversees your project and also likely the work of many other people
working on projects. That’s one difference between program management and project
management.

I led a large international organization that manages hundreds of projects, and my main role
was program manager. Still I liked project work. I liked to do both. And I got a chance in my job
often to do both. But I’ve known many people who prefer to stick with project management.
They like to stay closer to the ground. They like to have more direct contact with stakeholders
they work with and they like more of a chance to do the hands-on technical and management
work that is fulfilling for most people.

Think about your own skills and preferences. Do you prefer to work at the project or program
level? Or maybe like me—you like to work at both levels? The main thing is that I’ve discovered
in my career that we are all most successful doing the work we like most.

This graphic shows you a little bit of the distinction between program management and project
management. Programs are broader and often contain within them several “projects”.

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For me, I was a program manager at I-TECH and I did this work with an executive team. Our job
as a team was to keep the big picture in mind, looking for trends or trouble ahead, anticipating
shortfalls, representing the organization with funders. Tasks like that are part of the executive
team role. We were concerned with reputation as an organization, with assuring that systems
and procedures were in place to make project management as smooth and well-supported as
possible. These are some of the roles for program managers.

I could go on, but you get the idea—if you’re managing a program well it should assure that high
quality, mission-driven project management can occur.

So, to summarize:

• Programs are on-going usually

• Projects have an end point.
• Projects might start mid-way through a fiscal year and span multiple years before they’re
finished.
• While programs are strongly tied to a defined fiscal year. It could be a calendar year or a
different fiscal year.
• Program management is governance intensive. Program managers tend to interface with
boards of directors and advisory committees.
• While project managers tend to interface more with their technical teams and with their
stakeholders or constituents.

So, with all that in mind and with this distinction in front of you, let’s go on and give simple
definitions for each of these again.

Program management is the active process of managing multiple projects or a series of projects
as part of an overall program. Project management is the active process of creating plans and
managing resources in order to accomplish a specific assignment or project. As you can imagine,
both of these management roles have a lot in common. They use many of the same skills. In
both roles you have to manage people well. You have to motivate teams and individuals. You
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have to be able to resolve conflict and to manage money effectively. But they do differ one very
fundamental way—in my experience, at the program level, you spend a lot more time looking
ahead and forecasting. For instance, worrying whether a strike is going to affect your
programming or a hiring freeze that could handicap the launch of a new health worker cadre or
new health program.

At the project level, you spend more of your time doing hands-on problem-solving with clients
or your constituents to make the project happen. You are much more likely to be reacting to
changes in the timeframe for your project, the scope of your project perhaps has increased, or
changes in available funds to carry out project activities. It’s much more focused and in the
moment than program management.

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