What the UK Finance Department says about programme management

Whether you are working for an internationally recognised financial firm with lots of intricate fields and departments, or you are working for a small family run business, you need efficient knowledge in programme management if you want a company to be successful.

Since the United Kingdom introduced the world to marvellous movements like Prince 2 and Agile, it is interesting to see what their Department of Finance has to say about the roles and responsibilities of programme management.

• The programme manager is in charge of designing and overlooking major changes and transitions within the company, and is responsible for both the dependencies and the interfaces between projects.
• Since a programme manager must be on the ball with every action and detail occurring throughout the process, he/she is also responsible for ensuring a consistent and coherent flow of hard work from all parties who are contributing to the major change. The programme manager is in charge of directing workflow to the different teams involved in the project.
• The project manager must have a proactive attitude towards all aspects of the transition, especially when dealing with hiccups- but also when important goals have been achieved.
• Throughout every step of the transition, the programme manager must identify and deal with various risk factors that arise.
• The programme manager must make sure that all work produced is in line with the time, quality and budget that has been set out. 

The personal qualities that will carry any programme manager through the new project includes:

-Effective leadership skills that understand and encourage mutual respect
-Excellent communication skills (working with many different kinds of people)
-The ability to bring people close as a team and help them work well with one another
-A strong vision for the future and working towards it with integrity and passion
-Decent knowledge on effective project management techniques, like those inspired by Prince 2 and Agile movements 

If you are interested in expanding your skillset and fully understanding what it takes to run as a programme manager, consider doing an accredited course like MSP Foundation and Practitioner. The course material explores all the aspect covered by the UK Department of Finance, and will also provide you with the crucial components of customer service excellence.