The Future of Program Management
Adapt Agile and eliminate strict guidelines
Often we need to simplify our work, discard the unnecessary complexity, and make the path to insights and productivity easier, not harder.Pure by the book Agile is history, few enterprises are relegated to the strict Agile daily scrums and even fewer enterprises have stuck with the somewhat overbearing and meeting heavy Agile SAFE methodology. SAFE seems to create too many meetings and teams compared to a Scrum at Scale approach, where leadership operates an “escalation” Kanban board to adjudicate issues that need their input.
Complex enterprise programs need to retain the flexibility of “agile” without the restrictive structures of “Agile”
Agile principles are being adopted beyond IT, into broader program and portfolio management. The use of hybrid frameworks combining agile and traditional approaches can benefit design groups, legal and regulatory, even internal audit groups
Without the strict pure “Agile” approach, step-by-step guides for organizations ease the adoption these approaches, including stakeholder engagement
Enterprises shouldn’t get stuck on complex Agile tools, start with a good Excel sheet
Program Management strategy should include integration points for systems and dashboards to help business leaders evaluate metrics and innovations on the cusp of adoption. Risk must be evaluated with frequent milestone touchpoints during all the relevant projects within the program.
There are many new automated processes that reduce the program managers workload, but one must review the data on a regular basis, not only to keep your team on track, but also to review and authenticate data before it is published to any leadership dashboards.
I had an instance where a dashboard viewed by leadership showed four incredibly important deliverables as “Delayed”. In fact they were in-transit to our client and the data hadn’t been updated. In my Friday AM meeting with partners, I explained that the clients had already received them, leadership and clients were happy.
Enterprise leaders constantly see new tools and technologies from automated enetrprise app (MS Office, Great Plains, Co-Pilot) AI and beyond — all described as “game-changers,” “disruptors,” and “must-haves.” In a highly-competitive universe where even the tiniest edge can make all the difference, its very important to have human eyes on program management metrics.
AI And The Importance of Validating your Strategy
AI can analyze historical project data, trends, and external factors to predict potential risks and issues in a program. For example:
An AI tool like Microsoft Project for the Web or Smartsheet AI might flag a potential delay in a program based on prior data trends, resource bottlenecks, or team performance metrics.
Program managers can proactively address risks before they escalate, reducing delays and cost overruns.
But can the risks be overcome, is the risk documented?
AI can streamline administrative tasks, freeing up program managers to focus on strategic priorities.
Tools like Jira or Asana with AI capabilities can automatically generate progress reports, schedule meetings, and send reminders to team members about upcoming deadlines.
This reduces manual effort, ensures consistent communication, and allows program managers to concentrate on high-value activities.
But all of these metrics and automated reports must be validated
Remember, if it sounds too good to be true, it almost certainly is. Overly trusted AI platforms can get you in trouble. Lawyers who have trusted AI legal cites of decisions have been nailed by judges in many cases, for not reviewing each and every case cited in a brief.
