INSC 71010, Program Management

COURSE PURPOSE

This course continues the project management course and introduces the major concepts and basic techniques of program management.  A program is often thought of as a large project and/or as a portfolio of projects.  The course aims to (1) familiarize students with the problems and issues confronting program managers and (2) provide students with the vocabulary, concepts, insights, and tools to address these issues.  As a first course in program management, it provides an overview of several areas and knowledge of foundational tools.  As a generic course in program management, it tries to avoid over-emphasis on the way program management is done in any single industry.

In this course, we deal more with larger projects (30+ people) and multi-project enterprises.  We look at topics such as managing strategic portfolios of independent projects and coordinating large programs of interdependent projects.  Throughout, we look at programs primarily from three perspectives:  (1) a program architecture perspective, where the program’s final deliverables, processes, organization, tools, and goals are each seen as a system with an architecture, and these must work together in an organized way, (2) a risk management perspective, stressing that all work done on and decisions made regarding a program should serve to reduce the risk of an unwanted outcome, and (3) a stakeholder value perspective, stressing that management actions and processes should seek to provide balanced value to stakeholders.  Throughout, we will stress the managerial insights and the underlying assumptions.  We relate the topics to practical issues in students’ workplaces, and I provide exposure to a variety of sources of program management information for students’ future use and awareness.  The course incorporates discussion questions, written problem sets, case studies, and a “study program” assignment wherein each student collects information about and interviews participants in an actual industrial program.

COURSE OBJECTIVES

·         Understand the role of program management in the firm

·         Understand basic project and program management activities

·         Understand the fundamentals of project selection and portfolios

·         Build a basic design structure matrix model of a program’s product, process, and organization systems

·         Understand the fundamentals of program monitoring and control

·         Understand the fundamentals of a process-based program

·         Understand the fundamentals of project and program organizations and communication

·         Understand the role of quantitative modeling for decision support

·         Apply techniques to account for uncertainty and risk

·         Apply project and program management tools and perspectives to analyze case studies

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