A series of articles introducing people already trained in Project DPro to the merits of Program DPro
Program DPro Principles
The five principles of Well governed, Participatory, Comprehensive, Integrated and Adaptive were first created for Program DPro. Since then, the latest edition of Project DPro has incorporated the same principles into its philosophy underlining their importance at project as well as program level. According to Program DPro:
Effective program governance provides a clear framework for control, accountability, tolerance, support, and decision-making at all levels.
We can why Well governed is a principle which applies to all the activities performed in the development and humanitarian sectors. Just like projects, programs also have clear levels of accountability. We might argue there is more to be gained by getting the Well governed principle right at program level, as unnecessary bureaucracy is likely to be costlier at this level.
People´s participation is a non-negotiable facet of development interventions and program management is no exception. Although participation in projects can be more extensive, the Program DPro manager will still use the principle of Participation to manage expectations, communicate and engage stakeholders.
The Comprehensive principle means the Program manager must understand how the program´s individual elements interrelate, including how each activity affects the other projects in the program. Moreover, at program level, there can often be benefits of managing the program comprehensively, including securing added value.
The Integrated principle requires the Program manger to take a step back and take a holistic view of the program. Whereas the Comprehensive principle considers the individual parts of the program, the Integrated principle views the program as a whole.
Just like projects, programs must often incorporate change according to the context of implementation. Whereas, change management in projects concerns the agreed change in deliverables, in program management, the Adaptive principle is used to ensure that the program is always best able to achieve the organizational objectives underpinning the program.
In their entirety, the five Program DPro principles highlight both the similarities and differences between management at the project and programs levels. All these principles can be applied in projects, but programs are managed from a more strategic position.
If you enjoyed this series of articles, and would like to learn more about the principles of Program management, you can take one or more of the five Program DPro mini-courses for free.
A series of articles introducing people already trained in Project DPro to the merits of Program DPro
Program DPro Phases
How do the phases and principles of Program DPro correspond with those pertaining to Project DPro?
As a Project DPro certified PM, you will be familiar with the five Project DPro phases of Identification and definition, Set-up, Planning, Implementation and Closure.
By comparison, Program DPro contains the four phases of Identification, Design, Planning and Implementation and Closure. The key difference is Program DPro’s Design phase which has a strategic focus and is aimed at determining which projects and activities are needed in order to help the organization achieve its strategic objectives.
The processes conducted during the Program DPro Identification phase include the organizational Theory of Change and a review of the country or regional Portfolio. Subsequent to the review of these and other documents, the Design phase will employ many of the tools Project DPro certified managers will be familiar with, but with a more strategic focus. For example, the Logical Framework has the levels of “Program goal” and “Program outcome”. Similarly, Gantt charts plot all projects required by the program, rather than individual activities within each project. The key outputs of the Design phase are the Program Charter and the Program Proposal.
In Program DPro, planning and implementation constitute just one iterative phase. Rolling wave planning and implementation follow the philosophy of “Plan, Do, Review”. Due to the comparatively longer duration of programs, which can last years, they are often split into stages. Stages are managed through the use of plans and reports. Of course, many of the same project management areas, such as risk, change, human resources and finance are managed at program level, but with a more strategic focus.
Finally, program closure is often a natural end as the objectives the organization set about securing have been achieved.
A series of articles introducing people already trained in Project DPro to the merits of Program DPro
Article 1: Is Program DPro right for you?
Welcome to this new series of articles which provide an oversight to the Program DPro Guide specifically for people who have already certified themselves in project management by taking the Project DPro Foundation (previously PMD Pro Level 1) exam.
Building on this foundation, these articles will discuss the Program DPro methodology and its relationship to Project DPro.
In this first article. Let’s begin by discussing whether Program DPro is a qualification you should consider taking.
Who can take Program DPro?
Program DPro is suitable for the following people:
Experienced Program Managers
Aspiring Program Managers
Country and Regional Directors
Recruiters
Advisory and support teams
Individuals and organizations working at local, national and international levels.
In short, you do not have to be a practicing Program Manager in order to study for and sit the Program DPro exam. Those working towards promotion or looking to develop their careers may particularly wish to achieve the certification without being Program Managers. As such, Program DPro can be considered as both a Pre-service and an In-service certificate.
Why take Program DPro?
The Program Manager is required to manage complexity relating to various interventions and multiple strategies relating to issues such as poverty, social justice and disease or disaster. Program DPro provides the training and information you will require to synergize and integrate the projects in your program by managing complexity.
How does Program DPro relate to Project DPro? The quick guide to Program DPro effectively defines the relationship between the two guides as follows: Building on the Project DPro approach, Program DPro integrates the concepts and tools recommended for Program Managers into a framework to improve the management of multiple interrelated projects as part of a coordinated program. Perhaps the big difference between Project DPro and Program DPro is that the latter has a more strategic focus on the bigger picture. Knowledge of Project DPro is not a pre-requisite for anyone studying Program DPro, but a good knowledge of project management is necessary.
How do programs relate to projects?
The figure below shows the key elements of project, programs and portfolios. A project relates to the delivery of a number of outputs, with the project manager being charged with coordinating the project and its characteristics relating to time, scope, budget etc. In contrast, the program manager is more concerned with managing the organization’s achievement of its strategic objectives through the coordination of a number of different but related projects and other activities.
Projects, Programs and Portfolios, source: Program DPro Guide
In the next article in this series, we will take a look at the phases and principles of Program DPro.
Whether you’re a new site member, looking for activities for your Project DPro Practitiponer activity log, or simply wishing to fill spome free time, visit the back catalogue of PM4NGOs webinars using the following link:
We are pleased to be able to provide direct access to the article “The NGO Challenge” by the Association of Project Management. This article takes an in-depth look at the activities of Mercy Corps, PM4NGOs and Pyramid Learning in the development and humanitarian sectors.
Many of the professionals mentioned in the article are active in the development of the DPro suite range of products. It’s rewarding to see their efforts recognized by the APM.
To find out about how Project DPro is helping to address the NGO Challenge, take a look at the article below.
We would like to express our gratitude to the APM for giving us permission to publish this article on DPro+.
Soy Jesús E. Delgado, y me considero un profesional, practicante, conferenciante y educador en Gestión de proyectos, PMO, Resiliencia Organizacional y Continuidad de Negocio. Estoy comprometido conmigo mismo con ser un líder servicial y transformacional, un constructor de relaciones, un solucionador de problemas, un pensador crítico, un promotor de la innovación y un formador del futuro.
Tras el paso de los huracanes Irma y María en el 2017, los terremotos del 2019 y 2020 y la pandemia del Covid19, Puerto Rico ha sufrió una gran devastación y los sistemas de infraestructura principales se vieron severamente afectados. Debido solamente a los daños causados por el Huracán María, se han identificado miles de proyectos de reconstrucción y recuperación en todos los municipios de la Isla.
Nesty Delgado
Es importante mencionar que PR es un territorio no incorporado de los EEUU y por ende todos los puertorriqueños somos ciudadanos americanos y somos participes de las ventajas y desventajas que eso pueda traer.
En este caso en particular, PR será el recipiente de miles de millones de dólares de fondos del Gobierno de los EEUU para la recuperación, reconstrucción y resiliencia del País La gran mayoría de estos fondos deben ser invertidos e implementados a través de proyectos que se desarrollarán en toda la Isla. Actualmente, están definiéndose, diseñándose, planificándose e implementándose cientos de proyectos educativos, de construcción, de infraestructura, tecnológicos, y para aumentar la resiliencia eléctrica y comunitaria.
Todos los 72 municipios, los cientos de agencias del gobierno central y cientos de NGOs tendrán la ardua tarea de gestionar proyectos de baja, mediana y alta complejidad por los próximos diez a quince años. Esto es una oportunidad histórica única para Puerto Rico ya que con la cantidad de dinero asignada para estos proyectos podríamos transformar nuestra Isla hacia niveles de excelencia nunca antes vistos. Pero para lograr el éxito, hacen falta cientos de gerentes de proyectos con las competencias, la experiencia, la madurez emocional, la visión y el liderazgo necesarios.
En la actualidad PR no cuenta con suficientes profesionales de la gerencia de proyectos que puedan atender la gran cantidad de proyectos, programas y portafolios existentes. Por esa razón es urgente capacitar en Project Management, PMO e Implementación de la Estrategia a todos los individuos que tengan la capacidad de aprender.
Consciente de la gran cantidad de proyectos que deberán ser implementados en los próximos años como parte de los esfuerzos y fondos destinados a la recuperación y reconstrucción de Puerto Rico, hace unos meses propuse un junte estratégico entre la Asociación de Industriales de Puerto Rico (Puerto Rico Manufacturers Association) y mi empresa, OKA Project Management & Strategic Leadership para lanzar la Academia de Gerencia de Proyectos PM4PRR3 (Project Management for Puerto Rico’s Recovery, Reconstruction & Resiliency).
El programa educativo está enfocado en proveer, a todo tipo de profesional, las competencias necesarias para la gestión eficiente de proyectos y el conocimiento y herramientas para el diseño, implementación y mejora continua de las Oficinas de Gerencia de Proyectos. La Academia no será solo para los miembros de la Asociación sino que estará abierta al público en general, municipios y las organizaciones sin fines de lucro (NGOs) y para todo personal responsable de la implementación de proyectos.
Para recalcar nuestro compromiso social, estaremos becando a un miembro de NGO’s por cada 20 participantes matriculados en la academia. Estoy convencido de que el mayor riesgo en un proyecto es ponerlo en manos de un Gerente de Proyectos sin las habilidades y experiencia necesarias por lo que llevo desde hace más de un año exponiendo esta situación en diferentes foros públicos del País. Y por eso propuse tomar acciones afirmativas a través de la Academia PM4PRR3.
Para esta academia hemos creado un “Roadmap” de aprendizaje en donde estaremos llevando a los participantes desde la fundación en Gerencia de Proyectos, luego a convertirlos en Practicantes de la profesión y hasta llevarlos a tener las competencias y conocimiento necesarios para diseñar, poner en marcha y mejorar continuamente sus PMOs.
Con este objetivo hemos logrado traer Certificaciones profesionales en Project Management & PMO reconocidas internacionalmente a precios sumamente razonables. Para la creación de la Academia hemos contado con la asesoría y apoyo de John Cropper, fundador de Pyramid Learning y pasado presidente de PM4NGOs desde Inglaterra, de Leonardo Reyes, presidente de PMO Academy y PMOfficers desde Barcelona, y de Antonio Nieto Rodríguez, pasado presidente del PMI a nivel mundial, autor para el Harvard Business Review y cofundador del Strategy Implementation Institute desde Bruselas. Todos gurús y expertos internacionalmente reconocidos en la Gerencia de Proyectos”
Para este proyecto educativo, estamos combinando las metodologías para la gestión de proyectos de desarrollo publicadas por la organización PM4NGOs y Pyramid Learning en combinación con las Metodologías para el desarrollo de PMOs de la PMO Academy by PMOfficers y el modelo de implementación estratégico publicado por el Strategy Implementation Institue. Organizaciones internacionales que son líderes en educación y estándares sobre la Gerencia de Proyectos.
There is a wide range of tools for project managers on the market…some of which are more useful than others!
One excellent online article we have found describes a number of these tools as well as outlining their usefulness.
This article is written by stakeholdermap.com and be found here.
The ten tools discussed are as follows:
Microsoft Project
Skype for Business
Trello
Evernote
Microsoft Visio
VSDX Annotator
SmartDraw
JIRA
Slack
GanttPro
With so many project management tools on the market, we’d like to know your experiences of using project management applications and software.
Which of these tools do you have experience of using? Do you feel that some of these tools are more appropriate to the development and humanitarian secotrs than others?
Please let us know your experiences in the comments.
In the fourth and final article in this series, we take a look at the Project DPro Practitioner activity “Writing a Case Study”. This a “Giving Back” activity.
Many Practitioner candidates may not have a written a case study previously. Here are some tips to help you write an interesting and informative summary of your case:
The word limit for this Practitioner activity is 500-1000 words. This is not a lot, so you will have to plan your case study carefully.
Most importantly, a Case Study is an opportunity to write a narrative account of your experiences. In comparison with more formal writing styles, narratives allow the writer to make use of description to create an image in the reader’s mind.
Descriptive writing appeals to the five senses: sight, sound, smell, touch and taste. While some of these may be inappropriate to your narrative, others will help you to paint a vivid picture of the situation you are describing. Consider the following two examples:
The end of project celebration was very enjoyable and people had a good time. (explanation)
And:
During the celebration people expressed their satisfaction with the results and their pride at the accomplishments of the project. Friends for life exchanged contact and details and people ate, drank and gave thanks before parting for their next challenges. (description)
See how the second paragraph paints a picture of a true celebration of hard work performed and targets reached. The reader can easily imagine how it would feel to be part of the celebration.
Descriptive writing can also help you to portray the cultural, social and environmental context of your case study. Also, you may wish to describe a particular issue or problem and how this was overcome – this can also be done with descriptive writing.
In your case study, you may wish to use a more formal style to discuss results and outcomes. These can be presented quantitively in the form of statistics, graphs and tables.
We hope these tips help you as you write your case study and that this series of Practitioner Skills articles has provided effective guidance as you complete your Practitioner activity log.
Good luck with the rest of your Practitioner certification process!
This is the first in a new series of articles designed to help candidates for the Project DPro Practitioner certification complete the tasks required by the activity log.
In the “Informal Learning” section of the activity log, candidates are required to write one book review and two article reviews. These reviews may be published on DPro+ in order to help fellow project managers decide whether these books or articles would be beneficial to their own learning.
So how do we write a good book or article review?
Firstly, let’s take a look at the information required by the activity log. For both books and articles the following information must be entered into the activity log.
Why did you choose this particular book/article?
What did you learn?
For books only, the following additional information is required:
What lessons from this book are helpful for other professionals?
How will you apply what you have learned? Give examples.
You will see that most of the information required by the log is descriptive in nature. The first question “Why did you choose this particular book/article?” should be straightforward to answer. Make a note of the reason before you begin reading.
For the second question, “What did you learn? ”, we suggest taking some notes as you make your way through the book. This will help you to easily remember what you have learned, but, in any case, note-taking is always a worthwhile exercise for any learning activity.
The two questions specific to the book review require a deeper thought process. The first of these asks candidates to contextualize their own learning through the prism of other project managers, especially those working in the development and humanitarian sectors. In itself, this causes people to consider whether the attained learning fills an individual knowledge gap or constitutes a subject which is misunderstood or undervalued in wider project management circles.
The final question asks candidates to specify how they will apply their learning in future. You might answer this question by creating an informal action plan so that you make a conscious effort to implement your new knowledge.
In the next article, we will look at the Giving Back activity “Helping your peers”.
