Why is Visibility the Key to Successful Program Management?

When managing programs, everything’s in the details. Well, if they’re visible…

Having real-time visibility of all activities within a program from a single, consolidated view, encompassing every task, status, cost and deliverable is key. From this vantage comes empowerment: the ability to track risks, benefits and overall progress across inter-connected projects, with the capability of rapidly drilling down any of these areas to identify potential.

Accumulating these details is often the tricky part. Many resources, most often people, their capabilities and availabilities, are difficult to accurately assess. The usual culprit is multi-source reporting: a myriad of manually delivered, activity-laden spreadsheets, timesheets, disconnected notes. Or worse – functionally obsolete software programs that deliver data in a similar discombobulated mess. Either way, it’s impossible to see and act upon the information. It’s also an ongoing, frustrating time and money drain on the PM and the organization as a whole.

Thankfully, there are options out of the disorganization. Look to the Cloud: Software as a Service (SaaS) has become the standard for automated, as-it-happens project participant connection. Its efficiency advantage over premises-based programs is its management, which is maintained and updated constantly by the software provider, rather than being the onus of the user organization’s IT staff. Program management tools can enable standardization of program information submission and detailed viewership, from resource optimization to executive reporting. This is vital – creating a common platform for all information collection and dissemination, for everyone involved in the program’s usage and benefit.

In addition to organizing day-to-day implementation details, SaaS simplifies strategic planning capabilities by archiving information from current and previous projects, providing searchable databases. This is of immense value, as nothing saved is lost, available for ongoing program planning and forecasting . Gone is the hassle and waste of inaccurate recreations; successes become replications.

Back to Mastering Program Management.