What is Managing Successful Programmes (MSP™)?

All organizations experience change, it is a fact of life that cannot be helped. These changes come in many different forms; supplier relationships are changing, new business processes are being introduced and organizations merge and divide in response to political market forces. As well as dealing with such change organizations still need to ensure that they are achieving benefits from improving existing practises, to be better prepared for the future enabling innovation and encouraging new thought processes in how business is done.

However, change is not always a good thing, it can sometimes lead to risk and complications. There will more than likely be many conflicts of interest and priority along with inter-dependencies. Such a challenging environment needs to be properly governed and Programme Management provides a framework to do just that.

Much like Project Management, Programme Management is a specially tailored management tool designed to bring people, activities and information together with the sole purpose of achieving something. Programme Management is provides a unique way to approach the setup and general running of a programme.

The organization is able to choose a specific set of projects, this is what forms the ‘programme’. The set of projects identified by the organization should deliver some defined objective, or set of objectives for the organization. The organization will be able to achieve major improvements and benefits in its business operation down due to the fact that objectives, or goals set forth by the programme are typically at a strategic level.

The link between Programme Management and Project Management is an obvious one. The programme is invariably made up of projects and can only be successful if the projects within it succeed. The theory behind the programme is that it should amount to more than the ‘sum of its parts’. Basically, without Programme Management, although the projects would still be able to complete their tasks these tasks would not have been so carefully moulded to allow a strategic goal to be achieved.

The Principles in Managing Successful Programmes advise how to:

• manage a business case for the programme
• organise people to ensure responsibilities and lines of communication are clear
• plan the work in a way which achieves results
• ensure that the organisation does benefit from undertaking the programme
• ensure that all interested parties (the stakeholders) are involved
• resolve issues which arise
• identify and manage risks
• ensure quality
• keep up to date information which tracks the continually changing enviroment
• audit a programme to ensure standards are being followed

The Processes in Managing Successful Programmes describes how to:

• identify the aim of the programme and envisaged benefits to the organisation
• define the programme and specify how the organisation will be different afterwards
• define and implement the governance requirements for the programme
• monitor and co-ordinate the projects within a programme to a successful conclusion
• manage the transition between the 'old' and 'new' ways of working, ensuring benefit
• close the programme and ensure the 'end goal' has been achieved