A large initiative is not one big project. It is several projects with mutual dependencies, and program management means coordinating those strands so decisions fit together: shared milestones, clean interfaces between subprojects, one reporting line instead of five. This is the second building block of my interim project management.
Since November 2019 I have worked continuously for PD, a consultancy of the German public sector: project leadership for a Projectile rollout, requirements analysis, concept work and program management. From 2017 to 2021 I also served as inhouse consultant at TÜV Rheinland Consulting, from 2019 onwards in parallel with the PD engagement. The full track record is on about me.
Public sector: procurement and documentation
The public sector sets a bar many consultants struggle with: regulated procurement, precisely defined scopes of work, and a documentation standard that makes every decision traceable. For me this has been the normal working day since 2019. Steering a program in that environment builds a discipline mid-sized companies benefit from as well: concepts that survive an audit, instead of verbal decisions nobody can reconstruct. One example from this environment is the Projectile implementation I plan, steer and monitor there.
Several strands, one deadline
What program coordination looks like in the mid-market: at a pharma company with 250 employees, three legacy systems from different divisions were consolidated onto one central SAP system, with a 2-wave go-live delivered on schedule. Three data structures, one target system, business units with legitimate concerns: that is a program task, not a project task. The case study is on the references page; the hands-on side of such projects is covered under ERP change & migration.