What are the common pitfalls and mistakes to avoid when applying a program management framework?

In my experience, it's important to learn more about all stakeholders (contributing) to your program. The program charter and RACI chart is a good first step to take. Add all different activities in the RACI to make it more clear who does what in the program. It's important to make an expectation agreement with your different teams to avoid conflict and confusion.

?? Achieving clarity and alignment goes beyond documentation. It's an ongoing process involving stakeholder engagement. ?? Use the Alignment Quadrant to cover strategic, tactical, operational, and contingency alignment. Ensure synchronization across all management levels. ?? Conduct regular alignment health checks. Tools like the Stakeholder Alignment Assessment Matrix reveal misalignments among stakeholders and strategic goals. ?? Visualize with tools like strategy maps or alignment diagrams. They help stakeholders grasp strategic directions and project contributions. ?? Foster a culture of consistent alignment at every program level. Ensure understanding and purpose alignment across all stakeholder groups.

Begin by defining a robust governance structure that offers clarity of roles, responsibilities, & decision-making processes. Facilitate cross-functional workshops w/ stakeholders to build consensus around the pgm's vision, mission, objectives, & scope. Regularly communicate progress, adapting messages to different stakeholder groups, & encouraging open dialogues for feedback. Utilize visual aids, like strategy maps, to maintain alignment and foster a shared understanding. Implementing a strong change management process to address resistance & employing periodic alignment audits can further solidify adherence to the program's mission and objectives, thereby reinforcing the program's robust foundation and enhancing its prospects for success.

getting into work or applying a framework for your project or program without understanding it goals or objectives is one of the major problems faced by program managers all over the world. One should always understand the purpose of the project before starting a program. Understand who all will be involved, what all risks we will face, how much time do we need?

A program management framework should be aligned with the strategic goals of the organization and the stakeholders. Otherwise, the program may not deliver the expected benefits or outcomes. To avoid this pitfall, it is important to define the vision, mission, objectives, and scope of the program clearly and communicate them to all the parties involved. It is also essential to review and update the program goals regularly and ensure that they are still relevant and realistic.

One of the most common pitfall areas in programs is communication. Communication, or lack of it, is what leads to poor integration and coordination. Projects need to know what is happening, when it’s happening, what is driving that change, and what makes that important to the organization and for other projects. Integrations fail mainly due to misalignment of timing in integrated activities that generate the most value. Alignment of project activities that provide a win-win scenario for project managers when delivering integrations is essential to success. The risk that needs to be managed is the speed and priority of other project components so that value across the time horizon is not impacted.

A program management framework involves multiple projects, teams, and stakeholders. Therefore, effective communication and collaboration are crucial for ensuring coordination, integration, and alignment among them. Poor communication and collaboration can lead to misunderstandings, conflicts, delays, errors, and rework. To avoid this pitfall, it is important to establish a communication plan that defines the roles, responsibilities, channels, frequency, and format of communication for each project and stakeholder group. It is also important to use appropriate tools and platforms that facilitate information sharing, feedback, and collaboration.

The most important is to align all projects coming under the program in a way to makes sure the waste is controlled, removes redundant activities and has all required program metrics. The same will enable us to take the right decision at the right time. Regular follow-up, reviews with the team are important.

Since the program would most likely share both team members and even environments across projects, it is very easy for Prog Managers to under/over utilize them with out a proper dependency matrix. Poor upkeep of latest reports or recording of key decisions are also places where Pgm Managers can go wrong.

I've learned the hard way that with stakeholder engagement it is also important to think on SPONSORSHIP. Having the right sponsor which should be sittting hopefully at an executive table, will ensure you have a voice to re-route conversations and most importantly alignment. Transformational programs, especially in tech nowadays, see a lot of changes and unforeseen risk, challenges, priorities that require strong and constant visibility from and to your sponsor. The programs are born to serve the strategy and ensure its a execution, a lot happens when translating from one to the other.

Don't be afraid declaring the truth/facts. Be nice, be human, don't be afraid to show your understanding of current state of affairs. This is truly yours. But "the truth is out there" and it's combined with others (your stakeholders) understanding as well. We can debate, plan, prepare endless, but only the experiment, only THE DOING will show us, what part of the plan is sustainable and what is not. JUST DO IT>

Strengthening leadership involves focusing on clear vision, effective decision-making and stakeholder alignment. The leaders should be empowered to set strategic objectives, motivate teams, and ensure accountability. On the governance side, reinforcing regulations, financial standards, and transparency is essential. By nurturing a leadership framework that promotes vision and governance structure that enforces compliance, programs can create a foundation for success. Some approaches to strengthen leadership could involve adopting agile leadership, where adaptability and rapid decision-making are emphasized. For governance, blockchain can enhance transparency & compliance by providing a tamper-proof ledger for financial and regulatory data

1st and foremost, my suggestion would be, be a human, respectful, honest and transparent. Be careful, lots of people will try to use buzz words such as "clear vision, effective decision-making, strategic objectives, KPIs, OKRs" the list is endless, without understanding, or knowing what they are and/or how to use them properly. Be human, don't be afraid to experiment and find the truth based on doing and delivering, limiting politics.

Over complicating it for governance’s sake. It’s impossible to move at pace and scale if program management frameworks are cumbersome and gratuitously time consuming. Simple, effective, clear, and open to ease of active engagement is the answer.

- Attempting to rigidly adapt an existing framework without customizing it to your needs. - Failing to get leadership and team buy-in. Lack of support will undermine adoption. - Providing inadequate training on concepts and tools. Equip people to use the framework successfully. - Rolling out too quickly without piloting first. Test and adjust on small scale before full implementation. - Ignoring change management. A framework represents change that needs managing. - Measuring compliance rather than outcomes and impact. Gauge success based on results, not just usage. - Failing to integrate with daily work. Usage will drop off if seen as extra task. - Lacking leadership commitment and role modeling. Executives must champion the framework.

Lack of monitoring and control can lead to deviations from the plan, inefficiencies, waste, errors, and missed opportunities. To avoid this pitfall, it is important to establish key performance indicators (KPIs) and metrics that measure the progress, performance, outcomes, and benefits of the program. It is also important to collect data from various sources such as reports.