Project and Program Difference, Stages of a Program

• What is the difference between Project and Program?

Project:

Definition: Is a temporary endeavor that is undertaken to create a unique product/service. It has specific timeline and resources

Timeline: Is a short term endeavor. Typically less than 6 months.

Management: Focus is on planning, execution and delivery and closure of the project

It is associated with a goal.

Eg: Develop a new website, constructing a house,  holiday trip 

Program:

Definition: It is a collection of  related projects that needs to be managed in a co-ordinated way to obtain the common objective/strategy of the program.  

Timeline: Is a long term endeavor, spanning multiple years

Management: Focus is on co-ordination between multiple teams, stakeholder management, dependency management and program level risk management.

It is associated with a strategy - a long term vision

Eg: Moving the organization to a new IT infrastructure, migrating from on prem to cloud if the organization's vision is to improve their Cloud presence etc 

•  What are the various stages of a Program?

Typically a Program contains the below stages:

• Conceptualization: What is the vision and the mission of the program? Why is it required? This phase should define the idea, the reason and the value of the program and how would the organization look post the completion of the program (vision). The key stakeholders should be involved during this phase, which helps to keep them aligned with the program objectives. Answers the question 'Why' and a tentative 'When'

• Plan/Setup: This phase is all about coming up with a plan to build and execute the program. Budget planning, resource planning (team formation plan, skill details, hardware, licenses' etc), risk planning, defining the time and sequence of events (major milestones) and dependencies, defining processes and tools. Answers question 'What' (is required to do) and 'How' (processes) and a more definitive 'When'

• Build/Construct: Build the teams - both the technical and the management teams, procure  software, hardware, tools etc. 

• Execution/Implementation: Implementation of the program, monitor it, status reporting etc 

• Closure: Completion of program and documenting the success and failures.