Project management, program management, and portfolio management are pivotal to the success of any organization. However, most people use these terms interchangeably causing confusion.
Through this article, I will clarify the key differences between project, program, and portfolio management to help you adopt the right approach.
A Quick Intro to Project Management
Project management involves executing a temporary initiative to create a unique product, service, or result. It focuses on accomplishing definite objectives within a set timeline and budget.
Some common examples are
- Developing a new mobile application
- Constructing a building
- Organizing an event
The Role of a Project Manager
A project manager leads the project team to deliver the desired outcomes on time and within budget Their key duties include
- Defining the project scope, objectives, and deliverables
- Creating a detailed project plan and timeline
- Assembling the project team and allocating resources
- Overseeing task execution as per the schedule
- Monitoring budgets and tracking progress
- Managing risks and resolving issues
- Coordinating with stakeholders for approvals and feedback
- Ensuring quality as per requirements
Essentially, project managers handle all aspects of project delivery from initiation to closure.
What is Program Management?
Programs include a group of interconnected projects managed together to attain organizational goals.
For example, a program could be:
- Launching a new product line
- Opening new retail outlets across a region
- Merging IT systems after an acquisition
Programs align projects to business strategy instead of treating them as independent initiatives.
The Role of a Program Manager
A program manager coordinates between related projects and ensures alignment with organization-wide objectives. Their responsibilities include:
- Providing oversight across multiple project teams
- Resolving resource constraints and scheduling conflicts
- Monitoring program-level budgets, timelines, and risks
- Tracking progress across projects and reporting consolidated status
- Addressing issues that impact program outcomes
- Managing communications between project teams and stakeholders
- Providing support to project managers as needed
- Driving synergy between projects to maximize benefits
While project managers focus on deliverables, program managers take a strategic approach and oversee successful program delivery.
What is Portfolio Management?
Portfolio management refers to centrally managing multiple programs and standalone projects to achieve business goals. The aim is to prioritize the right projects that offer the highest ROI and strategic value.
Key responsibilities of a portfolio manager include:
- Evaluating all projects and programs on parameters like costs, resources, and alignment with business objectives
- Prioritizing projects based on expected business value and impact
- Balancing risk vs reward across the project portfolio
- Allocating budgets and resources optimally
- Monitoring progress across the portfolio
- Adjusting project timelines or priorities when business needs change
Portfolio management takes a helicopter view of all projects and directs them to support organizational strategy.
Core Differences Between the Three Approaches
While project, program, and portfolio management are interlinked, they differ in some key aspects:
| Parameter | Project Management | Program Management | Portfolio Management |
|---|---|---|---|
| Scope | Individual project | Multiple related projects | All projects and programs |
| Objective | Meet project goals | Attain overall program benefits | Achieve strategic business objectives |
| Timeframe | Short-term | Medium to long-term | Continuous |
| Role | Project managers | Program managers | Portfolio managers |
| Focus | Tactical | Strategic | Strategic |
| Owns | Project budget and resources | Program budget and shared resources | Portfolio budget and all resources |
| Success Measured By | Within time, budget, scope | Program ROI and benefits | Portfolio ROI and strategic impact |
Essentially, portfolio management takes the most holistic approach driven by business strategy. Program management coordinates between projects while optimizing resources. Project management focuses on executing individual initiatives successfully.
Aligning Projects, Programs, and Portfolios
To summarize, here’s how an organization can adopt an integrated approach:
- Portfolio management ensures projects align with business strategy
- Program management groups related projects and allocates shared resources
- Project management delivers individual projects successfully
This tiered structure provides end-to-end visibility and strategy alignment. Portfolios offer direction, programs enable coordination between projects, and project managers execute the work.
Key Takeaways
- Project management involves executing individual projects with defined scopes, budgets, and timelines.
- Program management coordinates between interdependent projects and focuses on overall program objectives.
- Portfolio management evaluates all initiatives based on strategic alignment and expected ROI.
- While project managers focus on deliverables, program managers take a strategic approach and portfolio managers drive strategy execution.
- Adopting integrated portfolio, program, and project management practices helps organizations execute strategy effectively.
Frequency of Entities:
project management: 14
program management: 12
portfolio management: 12
project manager: 5
program manager: 5
portfolio manager: 3
project: 24
program: 16
portfolio: 10
TechTarget’s introductory guide to project portfolio management examines the nuts and bolts of PPM, laying out the steps involved in the process, its benefits and challenges, and how it differs from other approaches organizations use to maximize the value of their projects. We also delve into the broad market of PPM tools and software, including their ongoing adaptation by vendors in response to new ways of working and the need for enterprises to pivot quickly in the face of global crises, such as the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine. Throughout the guide, there are hyperlinks to in-depth explorations of these and other relevant PPM topics, as well as to definitions of key concepts such as Agile project management, value stream management and risk-reward ratio.
Project management, program management and portfolio management are three strategies organizations use to oversee projects and achieve business objectives. Although the three disciplines are interrelated, they each play a unique role in overseeing projects and have different objectives.
Heres a high-level look at what each discipline entails, the chief responsibilities associated with each and their differences.
What is program management?
Although by definition a project is a finite undertaking with a beginning and an end, most organizations have multiple projects happening at any given time and may have hundreds or thousands going on during the course of a year. And those myriad individual projects rarely — if ever — have nothing to do with each other. In fact, organizations typically have multiple projects, each of whose successful execution is required to reach an enterprise objective. Those related projects make up a program.
PMI has defined program as “a group of related projects managed in a coordinated manner to obtain benefits not available from managing them individually.”
Examples of a program include a product launch or a store opening, as multiple projects must be completed to make each of those events happen. A program in an IT department could be the integration of a newly acquired companys personnel, data and applications into the main organizations IT systems and network.
Program management is the discipline of using established policies, processes, procedures and tools to manage the collection of projects that make up a program. It ensures an organization achieves the target outcome of all that work as well as realizes the maximum value of all those projects.
As Handler explained: “A program is [a set of] interconnected projects that share some commonality — like an objective. Program management is the overlay of management on top of it, on top of those interdependent projects, so you have some element of coordination.”
Program management also helps decide and allocate resources, he added.
Handler said program management, like project management, ensures that teams have the resources they need when they need them through coordination, prioritization and scheduling so that all project teams can complete their work, deliver their projects and meet the ultimate objective on time and on budget.
Project VS. Program VS. Portfolio – SIMPLE with Animated EXAMPLES
What is the difference between program management and portfolio management?
Program management: This process focuses on a group of projects and handles overall coordination between teams. Portfolio management: This process oversees all projects and programs in an organization, but focuses on the overarching goals and how projects and programs align with those goals.
What is the difference between project management and portfolio management?
As we discussed above, projects, programs and portfolios form three tiers of a hierarchy. Program management provides a better overview than project management, while portfolio management offers a higher perspective over program management. Let’s get down into some specifics: People often use program and project management interchangeably.
What is the difference between a program and a portfolio?
Now, if an organization has more than one project, they will deal with them under a program or portfolio. The distribution of projects under a program or portfolio depends on the nature and the type of project. Programs are managed through program management and portfolios are managed through portfolio management.
What is a portfolio in program management?
A portfolio refers to a group of related or unrelated projects or programs. A portfolio can consist of multiple programs or multiple projects. It can have multiple, dissimilar projects because portfolio management deals with two or more unrelated projects. Conversely, in program management, only related projects are managed.
