Exploring the Differences Between a Project and a Program
Explore the distinct differences between project and program management, focusing on stakeholder engagement and communication strategies. Understand how managing multiple projects within a program requires higher-level oversight, effective scheduling, and leadership syncs to ensure smooth information flow and accountability across teams.
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For stakeholder management and communication plans, as with most key areas of management, the difference between managing a project and a program is about scale. In a program, the number of stakeholders increases, and that means that the number of concurrent communication plans that are being utilized increases. Instead of a single stand-up, we may have at least one per project; the same goes for status reports and possibly MBRs, depending on the complexity of the project.
This isn’t to say that we, as the TPM running the program, are directly responsible for each of these communications, but we are accountable to them. If a project is falling behind on statuses, or the TPM isn’t meeting with stakeholders enough to keep them in the loop, as the ...