Project Management, Program Management, and Project Portfolio Management are interrelated disciplines of the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) published by the Project Management Institute (PMI).

To understand each management discipline, you first need to understand:

• PMI projects, programs, and portfolios
• What each discipline does
• How they support each other
• How they differ from each other
• Certification requirements for each discipline

Let’s get started.

Defining project vs program vs portfolio

According to PMBOK:

A project is “…a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, service, or result.”

Projects have a defined scope. They have a definite beginning and end. They are initiated in response to either:

• A need, request, or requirement that must be fulfilled
• A product, process, or service that must be created

Projects enable business value. A project can be a stand-alone initiative or part of a larger program or portfolio.

A program is a group of related projects and subsidiary programs that are managed in a coordinated way to realize benefits that cannot be achieved separately.

Importantly, programs are not large projects. Instead, programs involve coordinating and managing their related projects and sub-programs to ensure the promised delivery and benefits of the entire program.

A portfolio encompasses a group of projects and/or programs that are managed as a group to achieve strategic and financial objectives.

Portfolio items are grouped together to ensure the effective governance and management of project and program work to meet organizational priorities and strategies.

The relationship between projects, programs, and portfolios is shown here:

To better illustrate the difference between projects, programs, and portfolios, imagine that your organization has a project that involves creating a new case for a laptop computer.

That case project could be part of a program to assemble a new laptop that encompasses other projects for creating the motherboard, the CPU, and all other laptop component projects. The laptop assembly program and other related programs and projects might be part of a portfolio containing all laptops that your organization has built and sold.

Putting it more simply, note these relationships, per the above chart:

• Programs can encompass one or more projects.
• Portfolios can encompass several programs and projects.

Every project component is supported by and supports the other two components.

Defining project management, program management & project portfolio management…the right way

Project management, program management, and project portfolio management are fundamentally different. PMI plainly spelled it out in the sixth edition PMBOK guide when it wrote:

Program and project management focus on doing programs and projects the “right” way; and portfolio management focuses on doing the “right” programs and projects.

Project management and program management enable business value through the creation and delivery of a unique product, service, or result. They involve execution and results delivery. Projects and programs are generally carried out by project managers or program managers.