Managing Complex Projects and Programs: How to Improve Leadership of Complex Initiatives Using a Third-Generation Approach

Chapter 11Introducing Third-Generation Programmatics

The Complexity-Management Roles of Project and Program Management

To those who are reading this book, the answer to the first question raised at the end of Chapter 10 (What would be the responsibilities of executive management, project management, and program management in a three-party programmatic oversight system?) might by now be evident.

We observed in Chapter 8 that three-party systems have already been tested by organizations that needed to effectively manage the large amounts of operational and outcome uncertainty that were commonly associated with complex projects and programs. Their experimentation with such systems was driven by a need for programmaticists who could act as both operational savants and outcome sages. We also observed in Chapter 8 that those roles could be satisfied by assigning two programmaticists to manage complex programmatic endeavors: one project manager to assume principle responsibilities for managing operations, and a second programmaticist (later identified as a program manager) to assume principle responsibilities for managing a program’s responses to project outcomes. Organizations that tested three-party systems often used programmaticists who had different skills and competencies to fill each of these two roles. They expected the two to work collaboratively under the direction and authorization of a governing committee. Chapter 8 (Figure 8.1) provided a blueprint for the design of a ...