Differences Between Projects, Programs, and Routine Operations

You are in a meeting with your vice president. Someone keeps referring to an upcoming critical company effort as a project, a program, and as an operation. Your VP turns to you and asks you if there are differences between the three and, if so, what are they? Explain the differences to the group, emphasizing why there is a difference between projects and programs and/or operations. In doing this, define a project. What are four characteristics that help differentiate projects from other functions carried out in the daily operations of the organization?

Answer

Projects, programs and operations are all necessary parts of a business. How do you tell them apart? A Project is a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, service, or result. The temporary nature of projects indicates a definite beginning and end.

A Program is defined as a group of related projects managed in a coordinated way to obtain benefits and control not available from managing them individually. Programs may include elements of related work outside the scope of the discrete projects in the program. A project may or may not be part of a program but a program will always have projects.

An Operation is an organizational function performing the ongoing execution of activities that produce the same product or provide a repetitive service.

With all of this said, a real life example of these 3 parts of a business exists in my current place of work. I currently work at CRF Health, and we collect and maintain data for clinical trials all throughout the world, as well as provide the hardware in order for patients to enter their data electronically. So to break it down, the Operation would be each area of the company (i.e Project Management Team, Helpdesk, Logistics, Contracts, etc.), and each area provide a repetitive service to our clients. The Program would be each client that we take on (i.e. Astra Zenica, Merck, Johnson & Johnson, etc.), and the projects would be each type of clinical trial that client has my company collecting data for (i.e. Asthma Research).

Project Management Institute. (2008). A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, Fourth Edition. Newton Square: Project Management Institute, Inc. p 5, 7, 8, 12.