Glossary
A project is a limited work engagement with a defined end date or goal. Project management typically involves guiding the participants and monitoring resources in a disciplined, organized manner toward the planned finish. That involves carefully managing the project's constraints - typically considered to be time, money, and the scope of the project itself. A project should have defined goals and objectives - keeping costs within budget is one simple example - and may fall within a larger overall goal. Click here to read more about Project Management ›
The term program management is a relatively new one, introduced in the last several years to denote the overall management of a series of related, ongoing projects within an organization. Taken together, those related projects make up a program. If your company is launching a new product, for example, a series of projects are likely occurring in different areas of the company, including engineering, sales, marketing, and distribution, to name a few. Managing all of those projects effectively toward a common goal or business objective is program management. Click here to read more about Program Management ›
Just as program management refers to managing a set of projects, so portfolio management refers to managing a set of related programs within an organization. An example of a portfolio is all of the security-related projects and programs within an enterprise. That might include ongoing efforts by the information technology group to secure data, a marketing campaign to assure customers of the security of stored files, the legal team's assessment of potential litigation around security breaches, employee education campaigns, general risk assessments, and so on. Click here to read more about Portfolio Management ›