PROGRAM-PROJECT

DEVELOPMENT
PRESENTED BY: DR. JEANET E. PARRENO
POSSIBLE QUESTIONS DURING
COMPREHENSIVE EXAM
1. What Is Program Development? Explain.
Program development is an ongoing, comprehensive planning process used to establish
projects. Quality program development is supported by a well-thought out and -documented plan
of action. This manual provides a step-by-step outline of the planning process to be used by
communities, groups or organizations to develop successful programs. Written in plain language,
this is a resource that assists in designing and implementing programs. It is created so that you
will understand what a program is designed to do, what steps are required to design the program,
what resources are required to implement your plans and what measures can be used to
determine whether you have successfully achieved your goals.
Planning is an important step in the program development process. Often when we hear “program
planning,” we think of a lengthy formal document filled with statistics, charts and technical reports.
In fact, planning can be as simple or as complex as you desire, though an elaborate document is
usually unnecessary. Nevertheless, you will need a planning strategy that requires identifying
goals and objectives, conducting a needs assessment to analyze the situation, setting priorities
based upon the needs identified, identifying stakeholders and resources, designing an action plan,
implementing that plan and assessing your level of achievement.
• GOAL The final outcome of a long period of activity. Goals describe how the program will affect
the target population and should be SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and
time-framed. ACTION PLAN The summary of what you and others in your organization will do
to achieve your objectives.
• PROGRAM PLANNING A strategy that involves identifying goals and objectives, conducting a
needs assessment to analyze the situation, setting priorities based upon the identified needs,
identifying stakeholders and resources, designing an action plan, implementing the plan, and
assessing the level of achievement.
2. Discuss the importance of Program Development?
Program development is essentially a road map, an action plan that provides the guidance needed
to develop and build effective community programs. As an action plan, program development is an
ongoing and continuous process. Because your program is fluid and likely to change depending
on your needs, it should continue to evolve. As we are charting a course for change, program
development allows us to document each action or step so that we are able to conduct needed
assessments and determine areas where modifications may be needed. In program planning, we
identify major needs, set objectives, establish priorities and generally chart a direction for growth
and development. Program planning also allows us to identify shortcomings and weaknesses and
chart a new course of action should priorities and needs change. Not only does the planning
process allow us to keep track of where we have been, but also continues to guide us in the
direction we should be going. It tells us where we intend to go next. Equally important in the
program planning process is the need to identify stakeholders and develop a sense of mutual
ownership in successful goal achievement and outcomes.
• LEADERSHIP The process by which an individual causes a group to follow and accomplish
certain objectives.
• EVALUATION The systematic collection and analysis of data needed to make decisions.
Program evaluation provides information needed to determine the effectiveness of a project for
participants, documents that objectives have been met, provides information about service
delivery that will be useful to staff and other audiences, and enables staff to make changes that
improve program effectiveness.
• CAPABILITY STATEMENT A measure of your organization’s ability to achieve its mission,
goals and objectives.
• INTERVENTION A collection of activities that make up a program, such as a workshop, a video,
a stage show or one-on-one counseling sessions.
3. Discuss The Program Development: The Seven-Step Model
Step 1: Conduct Needs Assessment Tasks: Describe your target audience, identified
problem, program planning process and need for your agency to address the problem.
Key Players Responsible: Program planner
Products: Worksheets: Questions to Include in your Questionnaire; Collecting Data on
Existing Organizations
Step 2: Develop Mission, Goals and Objectives Tasks: Develop goals that accurately
reflect potential solutions to the problems found during the needs assessment. Establish
realistic goals that describe how the program will affect the target population.
Key Players Responsible: Program planner
Products: Worksheets: Write your Mission Statement; Write your Goal Statement
Step 3: Identify Funding Sources Tasks: Determine how much money is needed and
develop a list of funding sources.
Key Players Responsible: Executive director; finance expert; grant writer
Products: Worksheets: Resource Identification; Webbing Forms
Step 4: Assign Leadership Tasks : Identify perspectives and people who will lead
each step.
Key Players Responsible: Department director; executive director
Products: Worksheet: Program Planning Team Roaster
• Step 5: Design Program Tasks: Establish the details of your final program. Identify
collaborators. Describe your staffing needs. Determine how you will evaluate it and
how much it will cost. Create a budget that includes salaries and benefits, shared
costs, program costs, and indirect costs.
• Key Players Responsible: Program planner; program planning team and staff
Products: Worksheets: Interventions; Process and Outcome Objections; Intervention
Timeline; Collaboration and Coordination; Evaluation Plan; Staffing Plan; Budget
• Step 6: Implement Program Tasks: Conduct media campaign, recruit volunteers,
develop collaborations and implement activities.
• Key Players Responsible: Program director and staff
• Products: Worksheets: Media Campaign; Volunteers; Management
Step 7: Evaluate Program Tasks: Identify how you will verify documents and qualify
program activities and their effects.
Key Players Responsible: Program director or program evaluation consultant Products:
Worksheet: Outcome and Efficiency Questions
4. Explain what the needs assessment determines and how this information can
be used in program planning.
A needs assessment determines what programs and services your community needs. This
assessment is an essential part of the planning process when designing successful community
initiatives. It also provides planners with the information needed to prioritize goals according to
identified needs.
The needs assessment determines:
✓ What needs exist in the community.
✓ What group (who) needs the services.
✓ What other programs and services already exist to address the problem. ✓ How
the user community is changing.
✓ Whether resources are adequate.
Before performing a needs assessment, you must decide who will conduct the study.
A needs assessment study can be carried out by outside consultants and volunteers.
Available resources, your time frame and your comfort level with performing research
may influence your decision.
5. Discuss The Ways to Conduct a Needs Assessment.
CHOOSING THE APPROACH COMMUNITY
FORUMS AND HEARINGS

This approach is designed around a series of public meetings and relies on

information from key groups and individuals within the general population.
Advantages: ✓ Easy to arrange. ✓ Least expensive approach. ✓ Educates attendees. ✓
Describes needs to public to obtain validation. ✓ Allows citizen input. ✓ Data easily available
at low cost.
Disadvantages: ✓ Attendees may not represent the population in need of services. ✓
Attendees’ perceptions of need may be incorrect. ✓ Can turn into a “gripe” session. ✓ Can
raise expectations too high
Social Indicators This approach is based on inferences, estimates of need drawn from descriptive data
found in public records, and reports such as crime statistics, employment and disease.
Advantages: ✓ Vast existing data pools. ✓ Low cost. ✓ Flexible design. ✓ Foundation on which to build other
needs assessments.
Disadvantages: ✓ Must verify with other evidence that need really exists. ✓ Data are only indirect measures of
need. ✓ Personal or class bias of researchers can be introduced. ✓ Few indicator series have been developed;
therefore, specialized staff skills are required to create them.
Service Provider Surveys Research is directed at those who actually provide services to a population
in your community (administrative program staff at other agencies).
Advantages: ✓ Provides information on problems or service needs which may not be widely recognized. ✓
Validates information on existing community resources. ✓ Helps develop an overview of existing problems. ✓
Simple and inexpensive.
Disadvantages: ✓ Problems identified may reflect cultural or class biases of providers rather than real problems.
✓ Data may reflect needs only of those already being served. ✓ Needs identified may reflect vested interests
of providers
Key Informant Surveys This research activity collects information from those who are
not participants in the service delivery system but who represent and speak for various
constituencies in the community, such as clergymen, elected officials, advisory group
members and commissioners.
Advantages: ✓ Provides for simple and inexpensive input of many well-placed individuals. ✓
Identifies problems that can become public issues and receive widespread exposure. ✓ Indicates
programs likely to be supported — or opposed — by community leaders. ✓ Highlights issues of
importance to vocal and active segment of community.
Disadvantages: ✓ Identification of problems may stem from political or personal
sensitivity. ✓ May exclude some leaders who should have been included. ✓ May
exclude parts of community having no access to a leader.
Surveys Based on a collection of data from a sample or the entire population of a
community, this approach is designed to elicit information from respondents about their needs.
Advantages: ✓ Most scientifically valid and reliable approach. ✓ Most direct way to learn the
information on needs of individuals. ✓ Expands way to obtain information found through other
techniques. ✓ Flexible costs and timeframe, depending on whether general or target population
is surveyed.
Disadvantages: ✓ Most expensive approach. ✓ Individuals chosen may be reluctant to respond.
✓ Requires extreme care in selecting a sample. ✓ Requires specialized research skills. ✓ Can
require greatest amount of time. ✓ Choice of methods (person-to-person, mail, telephone)
must be clear and applicable to your community
6. What are the relationships among portfolios, programs,
 and projects?
THE RELATIONSHIP AMONG PORTFOLIOS,
PROGRAMS, AND PROJECTS IS AS FOLLOWS:

➢ A portfolio is a collection of projects, programs, subsidiary portfolios, and operations

managed as a group to achieve strategic objectives.
➢ Programs consist of related projects, subsidiary programs, and program activities managed in
a coordinated manner to obtain benefits not available from managing them individually.
Programs are common elements of portfolios, conducted to deliver benefits important to an
organization’s strategic objectives.
➢ Projects, whether they are managed independently or as part of a program, are temporary
endeavors that are undertaken to create unique products, services, or results.
Programs and projects, as significant elements of an organization’s portfolio, are conducted to
produce the outputs and outcomes required to support an organization’s strategic objectives
FIGURE 1-2 PROVIDES AN EXAMPLE OF HOW A PORTFOLIO OF PROGRAMS AND
PROJECTS MAY BE ORGANIZED TO PURSUE AN ORGANIZATION’S STRATEGY.
7. Explain the role of the Program Manager in developing a program/ project.
• A program manager is the person authorized by the performing organization to lead
the team or teams responsible for achieving program objectives. The program
manager maintains responsibility for the leadership, conduct, and performance of a
program, and for building a program team that is capable of achieving program
objectives and delivering anticipated program benefits. The role of the program
manager is different from that of the project manager. The differences between these
roles are based on the fundamental differences between projects and programs and
 between project management and program management
In programs, it is recognized that the best means of delivering benefits (via projects, subsidiary
programs, and other work) may be uncertain. The outcomes or outputs generated by the
components of programs may be unpredictable and uncontrollable. As a consequence, programs
should be managed in a way that recognizes the potential need to adapt strategies and plans
during the course of a program to optimize the delivery of benefits. A primary role of the program
manager is to monitor the outputs and outcomes of a program’s component activities and ensure
that the program adapts appropriately to them. Program managers ensure that program
components are adapted as required to meet the organization’s strategic objectives
The program manager is also responsible for managing or coordinating the management of
complex issues that may arise as programs seek to deliver benefits. Such issues may result from
uncertainties related to outcomes, operations, organizational strategies, resourcing, the external
environment, organizational governance systems, or the expectations and motivations of program
stakeholders.
The performance domains and supporting program activities discuss the principles, practices, and
program management skills required for managing uncertainty, navigating complexity, and
implementing change in the program environment, to optimize the delivery of program benefits.
They describe a framework and the principles for engaging stakeholders and steering committees,
and for managing the progression of a program’s life cycle.
8. Discuss The Program Strategy Alignment .
Program Strategy Alignment is the performance domain that identifies program outputs and
outcomes to provide benefits aligned with the organization’s strategic goals and objectives.
 This section includes:
3.1 Program Business Case 3.2 Program Charter 3.3 Program Roadmap 3.4
Environmental Assessments 3.5 Program Risk Management Strategy
Programs are designed to align with the organizational strategy and to facilitate the realization of
organizational benefits. To accomplish this, program managers need to have a thorough
understanding of how the program will fulfill the portfolio and organization’s strategy, goals and
objectives, and the skills needed to align the program with the long-term goals of the organization.
When an organization develops its strategy, there is typically an initial evaluation and selection
process that may be formal or informal to help the organization determine which initiatives to
approve, deny, or defer as part of the portfolio management practice of the organization
The more mature an organization is in terms of program and project management, the more likely
it will have a formalized process for program selection such as a portfolio review board or a
program steering committee. Either decision-making body may issue a program charter that
defines the strategic objectives and benefits a particular program is expected to deliver. The
program charter is a document issued by a sponsor that authorizes the program management
team to use organizational resources to execute the program and links the program to the
organization’s strategic objectives. It defines the scope and purpose of a proposed program
presented to governance to obtain approval, funding, and authorization. This program charter
confirms the commitment of organizational resources to determine if a program is the most
appropriate approach for achieving these objectives and triggers the program definition phase.
While project managers lead and direct the work on their projects, it is the program manager’s
responsibility to ensure alignment of individual project management plans with the program’s
goals and intended benefits to support the achievement of the organization’s strategic goals and
objectives.

Program Strategy Alignment is initiated with the development of a program business case. A
program business case is a documented economic feasibility study used to establish validity of the
benefits to be delivered by a program; it justifies the need for a program by defining how a
program’s expected outcomes would support the organization’s strategic goals and objectives. As
the documented economic feasibility study is used to establish validity of the benefits to be
delivered by a program, the business case is then further used as an input to the program charter
and subsequently the program roadmap.
9. Explain the Program Quality Governance.
The governance of quality is essential to the success of the program. Quality management planning is often
performed at the component level and is therefore governed at that level. The governance participants are
responsible for reviewing and approving the approach to quality management and the standards by which quality
will be measured.

In some cases, the governance participants may define such measures, which include: ➢ Minimum
quality criteria and standards to be applied to all components of the program; ➢ Minimum requirements
for quality planning, quality control, and quality assurance by components; ➢ Any required program-
level quality assurance or quality control activities; and

➢ Roles and responsibilities for required program-level quality assurance and quality control activities.
Quality control activities may differ at the component level based on the complexity and uncertainty of the
given component.
Program governance plays a critical role in the authorization of changes to the program.
The program steering committee is responsible for defining the types of changes that a
program manager would be independently authorized to approve and those changes
that would be significant enough to require further discussion prior to approval. As a
result of the monitoring, reporting, and controlling practices, the governance participants
should be well positioned to assess proposed changes to the program’s planned
approach or activities.
10. Discuss the Project Management Tool Box and Its
Importance in Developing a Program/Project.
Conventional wisdom holds that project management (PM) tools are enabling devices that assist a
project manager in reaching an objective or, more specifically, a project deliverable or outcome.
While this traditional role of PM tools is more than meaningful, we believe that there is greater
opportunity to provide value to an organization and its project managers. In particular, each PM
tool can be part of a set of tools that makes up a project manager’s PM Toolbox.
The PM Toolbox, then, serves a higher purpose: (1) to increase efficiency of the project players,
(2) to provide the right information to support problem-solving and decision-making processes,
and (3) to help establish and maintain alignment among business strategy, project strategy, and
project execution outcomes.
Project management tools support the practices, methods, and various processes used to effectively
manage a project.1 They are enabling devices for the primary players on a project: the project manager,
the specialists who make up the project team, the executive leadership team, and the governance body.
PM tools include procedures, techniques, and job aids by which a project deliverable is produced or
project information is created. The design of a PM Toolbox should mirror the approach an organization
takes for establishing standardized project management methodologies and processes. A highly
standardized set of methods and processes will in turn require an equally high level of standardization
of the PM Toolbox. Less standardization introduces more variability in PM Toolbox design and use, and
therefore more possibility for inconsistent results.
In practice, as organizations strive to grow and mature, project execution efficiency and repeatability
become increasingly important as the leaders of the organization look for consistency in achieving
business results. This means that project managers must be armed with the right tools—those that
support the business strategy, project strategy, and project management methodologies and
processes.

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THANK YOU!!!