User:Ididinsky/sandbox/"The Practitioner's Guide to Program Management" by Irene Didinsky

The Practitioner’s Guide to Program Management closes the knowledge gap around program management and offers a first-of-its-kind program management desktop manual. The purpose of the book is to define program management and outline an approach to it, illustrated with real-life examples. To date, this critical approach has not been well- defined and documented, and has frequently been left to the knowledge and expertise of program managers engaged in actual work.

Purpose
The book is a one-of-a-kind academic practitioner’s guide, with each page containing substantial potential benefits to the readers. The book’s structure and language are easy to follow. It is illustrated with helpful graphical images that illustrate key terms and concepts.

Contents
Programs serve as a crucial link between strategy and the execution of business results and organizations implement them to achieve strategic goals. Although the practice of program management has evolved in lockstep with the project management profession, the root causes of program failure remain.

In this step-by-step guide, Irene Didinsky offers a standardized approach to program management, closing the knowledge gaps and variations that currently exist across organizations and industries. For the first time, The Practitioner’s Guide to Program Management walks the reader through all the key components of effective program management. Using a case study example of an actual process improvement program, Didinsky discusses the qualities of excellence in program leadership, the importance of organizational strategy alignment throughout the program life cycle, how a program realizes benefits, and how to manage conflicting priorities of stakeholders.

This comprehensive resource also includes an historical overview of the professionalization of the field, outlines the logistics of forming a program management community of practice, and concludes with a glossary of terms. With this desktop manual in their hands, practitioners can expect to thrive and guarantee the success of their programs.

Knowledge areas
The eleven knowledge areas, each of which contains some or all of the project management processes, are:


 * 1) What Is Program Management : analyzes the current state of the program management industry, identifying gaps, the closure of which will ensure future industry growth.
 * 2) What Makes a Successful Program Manager : describes how the organizational structure defines a program manager role.
 * 3) Program Strategy Alignment :  provides an in-depth analysis of the program strategy alignment domain.
 * 4) Program Benefits Realization and Management :  provides an in-depth analysis of the program benefits realization domain. It defines a benefit and describes various types of benefits that programs realize.
 * 5) Stakeholder Engagement : describes the stakeholder engagement domain, including how to engage and manage stakeholders.
 * 6) Program Governance and Team Management : defines program governance roles and shows how each role fits within the program governance structure.
 * 7) Program Life Cycle Management :   defines the program life cycle domain and outlines a detailed approach to program execution through the program life cycle.
 * 8) Program Management Infrastructure :  describes how to build and maintain a program management plan, a key document that ensures program alignment with the organizational strategy, and benefits delivery, on budget and on time.
 * 9) Effective Program Management : describes, in detail, activities and tools that can be used to deliver a program on time.
 * 10) Future of Program Management :  discusses the future of the program management industry.
 * 11) Program Managers Community of Practice (PgMCoP) : defines the community of practice value to organizations and program managers, and describes their foundation, structure, and operations.

This book serves as a much-needed practitioner’s guide to program management. It also provides a foundation for program management training classes. Above all, it contributes to program management industry standardization.