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This two-part paper was submitted
for publication October 22, 2008, and is reprinted with permission.
It is copyright to J. LeRoy Ward and ESI International.
Published here March 2009.
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Program Management Challenges
First though, I think it is important to discuss the many challenges associated with program management. According to Gartner, "Sixty-six percent of large program initiatives fail to achieve their business objectives. Further, they are delivered late or substantially over budget". Most of these failures are people-related and can be traced back to:
- Underestimating program complexity
- Lack of firm leadership, commitment and sponsorship
- Poor cross-functional communication
- Lack of integrated planning
- No defined success metrics
- Poor requirements management
- Lack of broad change management
- Misaligned stakeholder expectations
- Inadequate program management skills
- Lack of resources
Therefore, the following ten steps are designed to help mitigate or eliminate each of these troublesome areas.
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Introduction
