Driving clarity at the program level

In order to drive clarity at the program level, we need to understand what sets a program apart from a project: scope and impact. Let’s look at what each of these means in the context of program management:

• Scope: The scope of a program or project is the set of requirements that will be met by the goals. It’s easy to dismiss this as being the same as the full set of requirements that are given, but that isn’t always the case. Going back to the project management triangle in Chapter 2, in Figure 2.3, both time and resources can impact the scope. It is a negotiation process between the TPM and the stakeholders as to what the right balance is going to be. Other factors, such as technical feasibility, may also hinder the ability to meet a requirement. This is especially true in cases where those setting the requirements are not technically inclined; they may ask for a feature that sounds feasible but is not something that...