How to Manage Complex Programs

CHAPTER 1

Program Management

Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler.

—Albert Einstein

The size and scale of programs makes them complex and difficult to manage. As with any undertaking, the prospects for success diminish and uncertainty increases significantly with the magnitude of the work. Where small projects are almost always successful and carry low risk, long-duration programs with large staffs of contributors have a high probability of falling short of their goals, and many fail.

Program management techniques strive to simplify the work by breaking it down into more manageable pieces. By converting large undertakings into collections of smaller projects, we move the work into a context where things are more easily understood ...