What techniques can you use to evaluate the effectiveness of a program with multiple teams?

First of all, a good business case must be created in line with the organization's strategy, followed by the definition of OKRs and KPIs at all levels and essential to correctly and levelly measure the team's indicators.

Setting clear SMART success criteria is crucial for guiding and measuring a program's effectiveness. For example, in the Trapeze/Signature Rail system project at MTA, we defined specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound objectives aligned with our strategic goals. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) like scheduling efficiency, delay reduction, budget adherence, and stakeholder satisfaction were pivotal in tracking progress. Establishing these criteria upfront ensures focused direction, enables effective monitoring, and differentiates a program's success in a competitive environment.

Measure Impact Precisely! ???? I'd evaluate the effectiveness of a program involving multiple teams by clearly defining success criteria, collecting structured feedback from all stakeholders, conducting thorough evaluations at various stages, utilizing dashboards and reports for real-time monitoring, and implementing lessons learned for continuous improvement. This comprehensive, data-driven approach ensures a transparent understanding of performance, guiding strategic adjustments and fostering overall program success.

In addition to the program's KPIs and SMART objectives, it's crucial to define the individual teams' metrics too that are aligned to the program's. Clear responsibility and metrics for each team will make it easier for everyone to understand what they are being measured against, how their contribution directly or indirectly affects the program, and will also make it easier to evaluate performance.

For me as a program manager, 1. I adopt the delegation of task to each team and define success criteria based on the milestone and deliverables to timeline. 2. We measure success by the feedback from the team on what we achieved according to plan and execution. 3 As a Digital Program Manager (JekaEat), we evaluate our effectiveness using our dashboard, food delivery rate, the partners (food and riders collaboration) and results. As well, we evaluated our effectiveness from the word of mouth marketing we get in our community

Effective feedback collection is a cornerstone of exceptional program management. My approach in the Trapeze/Signature Rail system at MTA involved gathering insights from various stakeholders using surveys, interviews, focus groups, and observations. More importantly, establishing a dynamic feedback loop for sharing, analyzing, and implementing this feedback was crucial. This method ensures continuous improvement and stakeholder engagement.

Better to have a 360 feedback across all team members, this will help in understanding better on how he is working within the team and cross functional teams and their contributions accordingly

Create a communication plan at kickoff. When will the teams communicate? About what? And - often missed - using what communication channel. Some meetings can be emails. Some emails can be Slack messages. And some Slack messages should be meetings!

Create a robust feedback mechanism to foster continuous learning and improvement within the program. Gather insights from diverse sources, including your program team, project teams, sponsors, customers, beneficiaries, and other stakeholders. Utilize various feedback collection methods such as surveys, interviews, focus groups, observations, or reviews. Establishing a feedback loop ensures that collected feedback is not only shared but also analyzed and acted upon, contributing to the ongoing enhancement of the program.

Conducting regular evaluations to test and understand the impact of different methods, strategies used by the teams for the success of the program. You can use different type of evaluations, like summative, process, outcome, impact or formative evaluation based on the scope and purpose of your analysis. You can also take help of program management tools that would help you automatically asses on different parameters in a timely manner and give you the complete stats in a more detailed manner.

Effective program evaluations are pivotal in elite program management. For the Trapeze/Signature Rail system at MTA, we utilized various evaluations like formative, summative, and impact assessments, underpinned by tools such as logic models and data analysis. These evaluations provided critical insights into the program's effectiveness and areas for improvement. Tailoring evaluations to your program's specific needs and objectives is essential to reveal actionable insights. This practice distinguishes top-tier program managers and resonates with discerning stakeholders.

In the Trapeze/Signature Rail system project at MTA, effectively using dashboards and reports was critical to showcasing program performance. These tools, tailored to stakeholder preferences and highlighting key metrics, not only provided clear, concise updates but also underscored transparency and accountability. Such strategic communication enhances stakeholder engagement and demonstrates top-tier program management skills, which are vital for distinguishing oneself in a competitive professional landscape.

The "north star" of execution is meeting the initiative's objectives while remaining within your constraints (scope, budget, schedule). To manage this, risks, issues and interdependencies must be regularly documented and reassessed. There are many ways to do this, depending on the delivery framework (agile, waterfall, hybrid). It is always best to define a visual reporting approach that will be useful for the team and stakeholders to view and see progress. Not only is it a great way to visualize and measure progress, but it's also a very effective means to motivate the team. When objectives are vague and progress is nebulous and unclear, work becomes monotone and drive wanes. Avoid this by implementing effective dashboards and reports.

Incorporating lessons learned is critical for outstanding program management. In the Trapeze/Signature Rail system project at MTA, continuous documentation and application of these insights significantly improved our program's performance. This practice, essential for refining strategies and fostering a culture of improvement, elevates program value and personal expertise.

When you need to monitor a programme performance across multiple teams, the most fruitful ideas I implemented were: - establish a common "vocabulary" so that communication flows smoothly across departments; -define clear roles , tasks and responsibilities (who does what and when ; which team is responsible for which task and how these intertwine; which team takes "the lead" on which task); - meet regularly to discuss progress, bottlenecks, issues and solutions; - gather informally to collect ideas, share best practices and implement new approaches to find synergies - promote a culture of bottom-up working methods we're task owners take responsibilities and managers oversee the work

In addition to all above. The main and valuable technique is to have a well developed M&E system which should include a set of process and outcome indicators (quanitative and qualetative indicators )at all level of the strategic plan as well as the action plan. So as to track the actual vurses planned implementation and the achievements.And to analyse the periodical and final M&E reports

Two of the most critical, yet often ignored, activities to consider in a program with multiple teams are interdepency and interface management. Interdependency is something that one team is dependent on from another team, or something a program/project is dependent on from another project. It speaks to enablers for success. To manage interdependencies is to identify what they are and ensure their coordination. Interface is the connection point between multiple teams. Interfaces can include physical, functional, contractual, or organizational. Interfaces speaks to connections within a program. As more individuals come together on a program the level complexity naturally increases for both independency and interface management.

Collect or come up with current metrics that can be reviewd by the team every week and work backword from customer to deliver end result.

Once you’ve evaluated your training program, you need to communicate those results to your partners in context that they can relate to. Good or bad. A lot of LnD leaders drop the ball on this. We tend to use a “blanket” chart or example and say our training is working. What leaders want to hear is how their programs are being used and what the changes are as it pertains to their KPIs. I always recommend that LnD leaders have a deck with slides catered to each business partner that’s swapped out in presentations so the leader and quickly see what the impacts are and what are next steps. If your program isn’t working, take full ownership and ask for thoughts when crafting a new plan. This will help build your credibility in the long run