A Look at ‘Program’ and ‘Program Management’ in Simple Terms...

Last week I shared about Project and Project Management in the context of Tea Making. Today let’s talk about Program and Program Management.

The definition of a Program according to PMBOK® is:

“A group of related projects managed in a coordinated way to obtain benefits and control not available from managing them individually."

With this context – is the preparation of an Indian Festive Meal a Program?

Last week after months of social distancing we had some friends over for a dinner feast. The cuisine chosen was Mughlai as our friends are fond of non-vegetarian food.

We decided to prepare Sandal Ka Sharbat (A sandal wood flavored drink) as welcome drink – Project-1

Zafrani Roti (Saffron flavored bread) – Project-2

Meva Murgh (A Chicken recipe with dry fruits) – Project-3

Fish Shaami Kabab (A type of cutlets made from fish meat) – Project-4

Mutton Biryani – Project-5

Onion Salad – Project-6

And Shahi Tukda (A sweet made of bread) – Project-7

We decided to call them on Sunday night. I checked with their availability and they confirmed. We immediately started the preparations as many of the ingredients are required much in advance like bread for Shahi Tukda should be around 3-4 days old; so, there was time dependency. Sunday morning, I got the ingredients which were needed to be fresh like mutton and chicken. Other family members got involved in other preparations like arranging utensils, making masalas, cutting and chopping onion, garlic, ginger etc.

On Sunday night we decorated the house, put fresh flowers, fragrant candles, arranged the dining area. As the guests arrived, we greeted them and started with serving them cold Sandal Ka Sharbat while we sat for a chit-chat.

As dinner time approached we all moved to the dining table and enjoyed one dish after another.

Our guests were delighted and blessed us with more happiness and success.

During this entire program we were continuously monitoring and controlling the affairs. We were ensuring no stone was unturned in terms of quality of our deliveries.

The guests left but there was still a lot of work pending at our end. We got on to cleaning the utensils, keeping the left-overs in right places, putting other ingredients and all other stuff in their respective places. And at last I sent thank you message to the guests for their attendance.

Now with this story which certainly has multiplicity of requirements, deliverables, customers, stakeholders, departments, staggered delivery, and interfacing organizations interacting with the work, do you see this dawat as a Program and was there a definite Program Management involved? Let me know your thoughts.