Project Management in Global Health
Essentials of Project Management
Lectured: Ann Downer, MS, EdD
These notes are about the essentials of project management. It’s gives a summary on how
project managers navigate the complex projects that they work on in order to achieve
successful outcomes.
What is project management and how is it different from program management?
Talking about project management and program management gives us vocabulary and
vocabulary helps develop clarity about the work we do and the skills we need to do it well. This
module gives one more vocabulary to describe what you’re doing when you manage a project
and what you ideally need in order to do it right. It’s valuable in and of itself. It helps us all
become more proactive.
“A lot of the projects I’ve managed in my professional life were quite large. I’ve designed
national curricula. I supervised the launch of ad campaigns. I’ve developed programs like peer
education programs in the schools. Even though they were large projects I was always aware
that there was a larger context or larger environment around my project. I think that’s good to
keep that in mind that the larger context may be your organization, your agency or your unit
you work out of. That larger context is what we would call the program, and that program
probably has a program manager who oversees your project and also likely the work of many
other people working on projects. That’s one difference between program management and
project management.”
“I lead a large international organization that manages hundreds of projects, and my main role is
program manager. Still I like project work. I like to do both. And I get a chance in my job often to
do both. But I’ve known many people—who prefer to stick with project management. They like
to stay closer to the ground. They like to have more direct contact with stakeholders they work
with and they like more of a chance to do the hands-on technical and management work that is
fulfilling for most people.”
Think about your own skills and preferences. Do you prefer to work at the project or program
level? Or maybe like me—you like to work at both levels? The main thing is that I’ve discovered
in my career that we are all most successful doing the work we like most. The main thing is that
I’ve discovered in my career that we are all most successful doing the work we like most.
This graphic shows you a little bit of the distinction between program management and project
management. Programs are broader and often contain within them several “projects”.
, For me, I’m a program manager at I-TECH and I do this work with an executive team. Our job as
a team is to keep the big picture in mind—looking for trends or trouble ahead, anticipate
shortfalls, representing the organization with funders. Task like that are part of the executive
team role. We are concerned with reputation as an organization, with assuring that systems
and procedures are in place to make project management as smooth and well-supported as
possible. These are some of the roles for program managers.
I could go on, but you get the idea – if you’re managing a program well it should assure that
high quality, mission-driven project management can occur.
So, to summarize:
• Programs are on-going usually
• Projects have an end point.
• Projects might start mid-way through a fiscal year and span multiple years before
they’re finished.
• While programs are strongly tied to a defined fiscal year. It could be a calendar year or
a different fiscal year.
• Program management is governance intensive. Program managers tend to interface
with boards of directors and advisory committees.
• While project managers tend to interface more with their technical teams and with
their stakeholders or constituents.
So, with all that in mind with this distinction in front of you, let’s go on and give simple
definitions for each of these.
Program management: is the active process of managing multiple projects or a series of
projects as part of an overall program. Project management is the active process of creating
plans and managing resources in order to accomplish a specific assignment or project. As you
can imagine, both of these management roles have a lot in common. They use many of the
same skills. In both roles you have to manage people well. You have to motivate teams and
individuals. You
Essentials of Project Management
Lectured: Ann Downer, MS, EdD
These notes are about the essentials of project management. It’s gives a summary on how
project managers navigate the complex projects that they work on in order to achieve
successful outcomes.
What is project management and how is it different from program management?
Talking about project management and program management gives us vocabulary and
vocabulary helps develop clarity about the work we do and the skills we need to do it well. This
module gives one more vocabulary to describe what you’re doing when you manage a project
and what you ideally need in order to do it right. It’s valuable in and of itself. It helps us all
become more proactive.
“A lot of the projects I’ve managed in my professional life were quite large. I’ve designed
national curricula. I supervised the launch of ad campaigns. I’ve developed programs like peer
education programs in the schools. Even though they were large projects I was always aware
that there was a larger context or larger environment around my project. I think that’s good to
keep that in mind that the larger context may be your organization, your agency or your unit
you work out of. That larger context is what we would call the program, and that program
probably has a program manager who oversees your project and also likely the work of many
other people working on projects. That’s one difference between program management and
project management.”
“I lead a large international organization that manages hundreds of projects, and my main role is
program manager. Still I like project work. I like to do both. And I get a chance in my job often to
do both. But I’ve known many people—who prefer to stick with project management. They like
to stay closer to the ground. They like to have more direct contact with stakeholders they work
with and they like more of a chance to do the hands-on technical and management work that is
fulfilling for most people.”
Think about your own skills and preferences. Do you prefer to work at the project or program
level? Or maybe like me—you like to work at both levels? The main thing is that I’ve discovered
in my career that we are all most successful doing the work we like most. The main thing is that
I’ve discovered in my career that we are all most successful doing the work we like most.
This graphic shows you a little bit of the distinction between program management and project
management. Programs are broader and often contain within them several “projects”.
, For me, I’m a program manager at I-TECH and I do this work with an executive team. Our job as
a team is to keep the big picture in mind—looking for trends or trouble ahead, anticipate
shortfalls, representing the organization with funders. Task like that are part of the executive
team role. We are concerned with reputation as an organization, with assuring that systems
and procedures are in place to make project management as smooth and well-supported as
possible. These are some of the roles for program managers.
I could go on, but you get the idea – if you’re managing a program well it should assure that
high quality, mission-driven project management can occur.
So, to summarize:
• Programs are on-going usually
• Projects have an end point.
• Projects might start mid-way through a fiscal year and span multiple years before
they’re finished.
• While programs are strongly tied to a defined fiscal year. It could be a calendar year or
a different fiscal year.
• Program management is governance intensive. Program managers tend to interface
with boards of directors and advisory committees.
• While project managers tend to interface more with their technical teams and with
their stakeholders or constituents.
So, with all that in mind with this distinction in front of you, let’s go on and give simple
definitions for each of these.
Program management: is the active process of managing multiple projects or a series of
projects as part of an overall program. Project management is the active process of creating
plans and managing resources in order to accomplish a specific assignment or project. As you
can imagine, both of these management roles have a lot in common. They use many of the
same skills. In both roles you have to manage people well. You have to motivate teams and
individuals. You
