Program management is the management and leadership of a group of related projects worked to obtain benefits not otherwise available from managing them individually. Typically they are aimed at a defined strategic purpose, are complex in scope, have large budgets, involve multi-disciplinary teams, and span multiple years.

The most relatable program for many in my generation was NASA's mission to explore the moon. President John F. Kennedy announced it on May 25, 1961—establishing the goal of landing on the moon before the end of the decade. The program was complex, highly ambitious, and included all major program management characteristics:

• Lasted more than 11 years,
• Had multiple stages (Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo),
• Entailed multiple projects (in their case, each launch could be considered a project),
• Involved significant cost (over $200 billion in today's dollars),
• Brought hundreds of public and private entities together for the ambitious goal of placing a man on the moon before the end of the decade.

Being a Program Manager: What it Takes

I've been a program manager (PgM) for the last 20 years of my career. Over this time, I've observed several common attributes to all successful program managers: they are outwardly oriented, strategic in their thinking, strong communicators, and adroit change managers. Specifically, they excel at:

• Listening and guiding their clients and stakeholders through a consensus process to define common goals and measurable results,
• Developing strategies and tactics that lead to the successful accomplishment of the stated goals,
• Defining a work process that enables the different disciplines and teams to effectively provide deliverables that add value to the next steps of the program execution,
• Obtaining and organizing the necessary resources to perform the work,
• Setting governance measures to assess and report progress,
• Communicating progress, good or bad, in a timely and frequent manner,
• Learning from adversity and success, applying these lessons in subsequent work efforts, and
• Recognizing changed conditions early and adeptly addressing them.

Eventually, all programs need to achieve results within established quality, budget, and schedule parameters. This doesn't happen in a vacuum; the governance and communication aspects go hand-in-hand to ensure that the program maintains momentum and accomplishes all those intermediate milestones that will eventually build up to the final results. In a gist, the PgM has to show to the client and stakeholders that the right pace of progress is happening and that the efforts are well in hand towards the promised goals. As importantly in this communication process, when bad news happen, the PgM has to promptly inform, not only providing bad news but also instilling confidence by recommending alternate courses of action or remedial activities to bring the program back on track. Last but not least, other important attributes are integrity, accountability, a focus on people, and strong negotiation skills.

My Legacy Career Endeavor: The Central Everglades Restoration Program

As program director for the Everglades Planning Joint Venture, for five years I had the privilege of leading a talented, multi-disciplinary group of scientists, planners, engineers, and project control specialists that supported the Jacksonville District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in the implementation of the Central Everglades Restoration program. This program is a complex, $15 billion endeavor spanning more than 30 years, with an area covering more than 18,000 square miles and 16 counties in the state of Florida. The program aims to restore the Everglades ecosystem to a point where it sustains itself and preserves the dwindling water resources in the central and southern part of Florida.

Listening to 40+ Stakeholder Groups and Navigating Complexities

While working on the program's main goal of preserving the Everglades, we also had to address the water resource needs for the large agricultural interests in the area and the growing urban population in both coasts of the state. As you can imagine, stakeholders were many: more than 40 groups, cities, Native American tribes, water management districts, multiple federal agencies, agro interests, environmental advocacy groups, and individual residents. Throughout my five-year tenure, we worked with these stakeholders, completing 14 multi-year planning and environmental studies and performing project management for more than $500 million in construction projects.

A Program that Learns from Itself

The neatest aspect for me was to see our scientists develop environmental progress metrics and measure progress as component projects where completed. They would then take these progress reports, provide them to the engineers so they could factor them into the next set of designs—essentially creating a self-learning process built into the governance of the program called adaptive management. We were setting new precedents in the Corps and the industry by working a program that would learn from past projects and apply these lessons learned to subsequent projects.

Collaboration Means Communication—and Communication is Key

Whether you're planning a mission to the moon or aiming to restore an essential ecosystem, above all, programs require communication. As a PgM, you develop and work day-to-day with a shared execution process that enables different disciplines to effectively communicate so that their deliverables add value to the next task, phase, or project in the program schedule. Most importantly, your client and stakeholders expect you to accomplish this within established quality, schedule, and budget metrics. This complex collaboration is the most fulfilling aspect of being a PgM—shepherding these talented professionals towards a common, worthwhile set of results!