Article as appeared in Automotive Engineer July 1998
A New management technique has grown out of project management to help with developments such as the introduction of new vehicles. Eric Russell explains
Project mismanagement can incur the largest single cost in a development programme. Tackling the problem needs better planning performance, and to do this a new technique has evolved out of project management. It is called programme management.
Programme management not only helps organise the many interrelated projects in a development but includes the resources to support and implement them. Much more so than existing multi-project software it puts much more emphasis on being a business tool and strategic aid.
As the new technique settles in to general acceptance, a number of definitions of programme management are appearing. Paul McBeth, a partner with IT consultancy Woodworth McBeth Young Consulting, says programme management includes projects which may themselves not contribute directly to the achievement of overall business objectives but which nevertheless need to be managed in a co-ordinated fashion. The company offers training in programme management as part of its services.
More than a way to combine a number of projects, programme management covers allocation of resources, especially when shared by outside projects. It also recognises that such resources will be used for non-project activities. It enables easier analysis of problems and delays and provides improved reports to senior managers. The starting point is business strategy and it is a top-down management system, unlike project management, which is product driven.
While projects are concerned with minimising the resources needed, programmes are concerned with maximising the use of those resources. Programmes are strategic concepts; projects represent the tactics that produce measurable results.
In automotive manufacturing, a programme for a car assembler could cover the introduction of a new vehicle to a market slot not currently addressed by the company. Marketing would produce a set of statements broadly describing the car’s appearance and performance, while a delivery date and price structure would be agreed. The programme would then split into projects with tangible objectives. Suspension. drivetrain, power unit, interior, body and design of the production line constitute individual projects with hard engineering data and parameters to meet.
Design engineers working on these projects need administrative support, computer time, test facilities and other resources which are being called upon by other projects within this programme and others which are also running. Most car assemblers will have a number of new vehicles at different stages of development. Programme management handles the interactions between projects as well as the shared resources.
While the programme target is to produce the car as agreed, the programme would not end with the production run. Feedback from the marketplace will mean fine tuning of the model, while the programme will have to consider how markets will change with time.
For the personnel involved, while project managers concentrate on their given objective, perhaps a specific component, programme managers have to include corporate and departmental objectives. Programme management software enables senior programme managers to take the overall "helicopter" view. They can then helicopter down to the personal activity level and examine personal plans at the lowest level of the software hierarchy.
Programme management must fulfil a business strategy and must be flexible enough to cope with changes in strategy anti in markets. Change is expected in programmes, but is an exception in projects. Programme management must also supply the basic need of being time sensitive: if the plan hiccups, the senior manager needs to know that there will be a delay, not that there has been a delay.
The trend towards multifunctional teams needs programme management. A team that includes many different disciplines will have many different projects to match the disciplines of the participants. But these have to be assessed as a whole for the programme to succeed. It is also necessary to include suppliers in the programme team. This develops the suppliers’ capabilities, ensures their optimum response to the programme and offers them a share in the success of the venture.
Jean Harris, director of Garner Harris Associates and project manager for the company, has worked in the automotive industry for many years. She says that while the principles of programme management have been practised for a long time, it is only now that the technique is being formalised. The company’s emphasis is on training people and Harris says the success of introducing a new vehicle and the associated new production line, with investment measured in millions of pounds, is dependent ultimately on people.
She adds that new working methods contrast with the traditional working practices in the car industry and need a change of attitude by employees to be successful. The best programme managers are the best people managers.
Garner Harris is working on a worldwide assignment for an international manufacturer. The first step is a team-building session, says Harris, to align people's targets, expectations, views and responsibilities. Such sessions can also prove their value later as a reference point as programmes roll out. Garner Harris has also been involved with several projects at the Ford Motor Company and Rover Group.
Just one software programme so far appears to have been developed specifically for programme management. Hydra Development Corporation’s approach is to emulate the delegation model, based on the convention of a programme manager delegating to a senior project manager delegating to managers who plan individual resources. This means one software is used for the whole project, from individual time sheets to the master overview.
Although it looks and feels like a single project planning system, Hydra addresses the issues faced by a multi-project organisation. It is based on distributed, connected planning and integrates non-project workload, departmental planning, time sheets and high-level management reporting. It is networkable, to maximise communications, and is already in use by multinational companies. Its multi-headed capability led to it being named Hydra after the multi-headed snake killed by Hercules in Greek mythology.
The software accesses a central database so all information is readily available. This means the senior manager can see an overview of the projects but, if some work is late or over cost, can drill down to the personal plan of a single team member for more details.
Geoff Reiss, managing director of Hydra Development Corporation, says Hydra has no direct competition. It also avoids the problems of much project management software that has been amended to handle the multi-project environment. All the main project management software can handle multiple projects, but Reiss says these packages "pour all their plans into a pot’ This makes it difficult to consolidate individual plans into a manageable master, It is also difficult to backtrack to a specific problem area.
Reiss also points out that programme management is an answer to runaway projects.
Automatic linking in Hydra between levels means that common data is updated throughout the whole software when an entry is made at any level. This ensures consistency of identity for both individuals, tasks and projects. A computer will allocate Fred Smith two different entries on the database, for example, if someone else enters his name as F Smith. Different departments may also call a given resource by different titles or references.
With the importance of resource allocation in programme management, Hydra has developed a system it is hoping to patent called Pre-emptive Resource Levelling. Conventional resource allocation routines search resource availability for a slot of free time large enough to accept the work being allocated. The method ignores slots that are free but are too short. Hydra uses these slots. This means one person can be given two or three jobs running concurrently.
Reiss is chairman of the special interest group in programme management set 01) by the Association of Project Managers and the British Computer Society. He says one definition of programme management is the co-ordinated management of a portfolio of projects to achieve a set of business objectives. Reiss, author of several books including Programme Management Demystified has previously co-authored several project management software systems.
There is a trend for project managers to become freelance, or virtually so, being hired for a specific project. They are very mobile and move across industries as well as between companies. Project management skills often seem to count for more today than industry-specific knowledge, says Reiss.