Boundary activities and readiness for ... - Projekti-Instituutti

Theoretical background
Table 3 Comparison of a project and a program
(modified from Pellegrinelli (1997) and Artto et al. (2009))
Objective
Project
Delivery of predetermined
deliverables
Program
Delivery of strategic benefits for
the parent organization
Starting point Well-defined task High-level vision or need; may
include multiple deliveries
Duration
Scope
Level of analysis
in related
research
Relatively short term; fixed
duration
Project-centric; project as ideally
detached from its environment.
The permanent organization is
taken as given, serving as an
influence factor on project
success.
Single project
Long term; duration may be
indefinite
Close connection with the parent
organization and the wider
business context; program
evolves with its environment.
Organization and its major parts
While project management is nowadays largely recognized as an efficient
methodology to organize, plan and control temporary tasks, program
management as a distinct managerial framework is quite novel (Thiry,
2004b). Although the term ‘program’ has often appeared in general
business literature, it has usually referred to more permanent “programs of
work” or general platforms for change in organizations (Artto et al., 2009).
The novelty of the program phenomenon within the project management
discipline has also been questioned. In fact, during the emergence of the
modern project management discipline over 50 years ago the terms
program and project management where used interchangeably (ibid.). Also,
large and complex projects have been implemented for centuries. In project
management literature, such entities have been called large or large-scale
projects (Jolivet & Navarre, 1996; Miller & Lessard, 2001), major projects
(Bryson & Bromiley, 1993; Morris & Hough, 1987), macro-projects (Ferns,
1991), mega-projects (Bruzelius, Flyvbjerg, & Rothengatter, 2002; Miller &
Hobbs, 2005), complex projects (Williams 1999), multi-team projects
(Hoegl & Weinkauf, 2005), or simply just projects. There is a growing
stream of literature that studies the management of such large projects (e.g.
Ahola, 2009; Miller & Hobbs, 2005; Miller & Lessard, 2001; Morris &
Hough, 1987; Ruuska, Artto, Aaltonen, & Lehtonen, 2009). The focus of
this large project research is on delivery projects with a single main
deliverable, such as a nuclear power plant, an aircraft, or a tunnel. While a
large project is typically divided into sub-projects for manageability and
control purposes, from the management perspective it is still essentially
one project, and the managerial focus is on the internal coordination and
integration across the interdependent sub-projects of the entity. Research
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