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UMD, USMx: Program Management Fundamentals – Governing with Excellence to Drive Strategic Change

Learn the practices behind program delivery excellence, stretch your ability to connect program stakeholders to purpose, achieve meaningful change, stay focused on the program’s mission, then drive integration successfully across program teams. Overall program understanding will be accomplished with strong links to portfolio management and project management.

Program Management Fundamentals – Governing with Excellence to Drive Strategic Change
4 weeks
2–3 hours per week
Self-paced
Progress at your own speed
Free
Optional upgrade available

There is one session available:

After a course session ends, it will be archivedOpens in a new tab.
Starts Mar 28
Ends Jul 31

About this course

Skip About this course

Programs fail before they start, and there is a good reason for that. The relationships amongst portfolios, programs, and projects are not understood well nor is the role of programs in achieving change aspirations.

  • Today nearly 70% of Digital Transformation programs fail and the reasons seem to be addressed as a guessing game;
  • The likelihood of being in the 30% successful bucket hinges on the leadership qualities of the program team and the clear program vision and purpose supported by value-driven roadmaps.

In this course, you will learn key program management principles, leadership skills, roles, mechanics, and supporting cultural attributes. This will provide you, over four weeks, the foundational understanding of the program management and program lifecycle role in executing strategies, successfully driving initiatives, developing an exploring mindset, and uncovering program management fundamental templates and toolsets, such as the Work Breakdown Structure, and skill sets, such as customer focus, applied in the real world.

At a glance

  • Institutions:

    UMD

    USMx
  • Subject: Engineering
  • Level: Advanced
  • Prerequisites:
    None
  • Language: English
  • Video Transcripts: اَلْعَرَبِيَّةُ, Deutsch, English, Español, Français, हिन्दी, Bahasa Indonesia, Português, Kiswahili, తెలుగు, Türkçe, 中文
  • Associated programs:
  • Associated skills:Door Hinges, Digital Transformation, Program Lifecycle Phase, Portfolio Management, Mechanics, Program Management, Customer Service, Work Breakdown Structure, Leadership

What you'll learn

Skip What you'll learn
  • The relationships amongst portfolios, programs, and projects and understanding how they align to deliver value
  • Why do programs, project plans, and strategies have to be connected, with comprehensive portfolio management, to accomplish critical deliverables, achieve end dates, meaningful investment success, and gain a competitive advantage

  • The linking processes between program management and change management to drive project teams and sustain innovative outcomes and associated metrics

  • How to show in the program plan the way resource management and different program roles support its success

  • How to leverage the role of the program sponsor to excel in the achievement of business goals and drive with clear risk management principles and meaningful dashboards

  • Using a program roadmap to create the connecting blueprint that integrates the focus, training, and expertise of the program team. FAQs will help guide you in coming with the most relevant options

Week 1: The first week starts with understanding the value of programs in the delivery of charters’ strategic outcomes from individual projects with excellence. A case example, coupled with a focus on the role of the conductor, will be used in learning how to drive and tailor the delivery of programs to achieve speed and quality of decisions and simulate complexity for better quality customer-centered solutions and outputs.

Week 2: The second week explores the future changemakers and how world organizations use change management in achieving strategic results from related projects, and how change management and excellence models cover the gaps leaders miss when they tackle change programs such as digital transformation or new product introductions. The week also covers insights shared in PMWJ publication on the value of integrated decision-making and a model of digital transformation that combines culture, systems, and people attributes.

Week 3: The third week gets into the importance of the role of the program sponsor as the driver for the big picture and the clear mission of the PMO. Program management needs will be best uncovered with the application of tiers of stakeholders in organizing a program’s focus. Connected program goals, project interdependencies, and the developed mindset and discipline needed for program leaders to think again for a change, will directly link to achieving business objectives.

Week 4: The last week pivots to look at how getting to an end-2-end joint vision and clear strategic goals can inspire focus and commitment to the strategic plan and achieving program value. The program management office builds on the principles and methodologies of the project management institute. Successful programs will rely not only on effective cost management but also on how empathy and human connection are critical ingredients to the integrated program way of working, and the course finishes with tips for context validation’s role in programs success.

This course is part of Program Management: Enabling Value Driven Change Professional Certificate Program

Learn more 
Expert instruction
4 skill-building courses
Self-paced
Progress at your own speed
4 months
2 - 3 hours per week

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