The activity consisting of the cohesive collection of all tasks that are primarily performed to manage a single program of related projects in order to fulfil the program's mission and to achieve its objectives. The objective of program management is to complete a set of projects usually related in some way by a common goal.
The effective management of a program may cover any or all of the following:
A portfolio of projects related to some common objective
An organization's business strategy which is to be implemented through projects
The interdependencies between a number of projects
Resource allocation amongst a portfolio of projects.
The life of a program management organization may be quite extended. However, it is characterized by the completion of the projects or tasks under its responsibility, each of which has a clear and finite termination. Program management is terminated when all its projects are completed.
See also: Program management, Project management