Boundary activities and readiness for ... - Projekti-Instituutti
Boundary activities and readiness for ... - Projekti-Instituutti
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Theoretical background<br />
on large project management also examines the ways of organizing <strong>and</strong><br />
controlling project implementation that involve a network of actors, such as<br />
subcontractors, consultants, financiers, <strong>and</strong> clients.<br />
A program, in contrast, consists of multiple projects <strong>and</strong> tasks that<br />
together aim at the higher level goal of the program. Program management<br />
extends beyond the program’s internal coordination, linking the program to<br />
the wider organizational context. According to the bibliometric analysis on<br />
program management conducted by Artto et al. (2009), program<br />
management as a managerial framework <strong>for</strong> coordinating interrelated<br />
projects started to gain importance within the management literature after<br />
the mid-1990s. Nowadays, it is increasingly agreed that programs should<br />
not be considered just as scale-ups of single projects, but they require<br />
fundamentally different managerial approaches, practices, <strong>and</strong> skills (Artto<br />
et al., 2009; Graham, 2000; Lycett et al., 2004; Pellegrinelli, 1997).<br />
Recognizing these needs, project management associations, st<strong>and</strong>ardization<br />
bodies <strong>and</strong> consultants have started to establish separate guidelines <strong>and</strong><br />
st<strong>and</strong>ards <strong>for</strong> program management. For example, the UK Office of<br />
Government Commerce (2007 (first edition in 1999)) has published a guide<br />
called Managing Successful Programmes (MSP), <strong>and</strong> Project Management<br />
Institute (2006) has established a St<strong>and</strong>ard <strong>for</strong> Program Management.<br />
As the multiplicity of the definitions <strong>for</strong> a program may imply, different<br />
types of programs can be identified. Several program typologies have been<br />
presented, based on the number of projects <strong>and</strong> the geographical locations<br />
in a program (Evaristo & van Fenema, 1999), the degree of the attempted<br />
change <strong>and</strong> the extent to which projects already exist at the time of program<br />
launch (Vereecke, P<strong>and</strong>elaere, Deschoolmeester, & Stevens, 2003), the<br />
mode <strong>and</strong> strength of coordination (Gray, 1997), the rationale <strong>for</strong> program<br />
creation (Pellegrinelli, 1997; 2002), <strong>and</strong> the program scope in terms of the<br />
organizational functions involved <strong>and</strong> the extent of the attempted change<br />
(Levene & Braganza, 1996). Programs also vary in type, examples including<br />
research, product development, <strong>and</strong> in<strong>for</strong>mation systems development<br />
programs (Payne & Turner, 1999). Different management practices are<br />
needed <strong>for</strong> different kinds of programs (Evaristo & van Fenema, 1999;<br />
Vereecke et al., 2003), <strong>and</strong> even within a program <strong>for</strong> the different projects<br />
(Payne & Turner, 1999).<br />
The focus of the current study is on a particular type of programs, internal<br />
change programs, defined as temporary organizations in which multiple<br />
projects are managed together to deliver a change in the parent<br />
organization. Change programs typically include cross-departmental <strong>and</strong><br />
multidisciplinary projects that share a common business goal (Ferns, 1991).<br />
Change programs have also been called strategic programs (ibid.) <strong>and</strong><br />
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