Program planning 

An effective and disciplined planning of a project is directly related to customer satisfaction. Since customer expectations always include timely delivery as a key priority.  

After the individual project plans are incorporated, it is time to begin the program planning effort .A program plan is a scheme,1 program, or process worked out in advance for the achievement of an objective. 

The schedule process begins with a program plan that describes the over all program in general terms. The program plan usually involves a series of reviews of the individual project plans and then results in a digest of their contents. During this procedure, disagreement between projects is obvious and requires resolution. A goal of the process effort is to create a brief, usable vision of all program work, timeframes, and required results. It is a reference basis for all the documents which impact on the program. 

The program plan includes 

?  Program overview. 

?  Program Strategy. 

?  Customer Identification. 

?  Program objectives. 

?  Risk management. 

?  Measures of program success. 

?  Program scope and requirements. 

In short, the program plans include illustration of important planned actions and results of individual projects which provide managers an insight into the collective work effort of the program. Managers use this to validate if the program is moving in the right track and if it meets business goals. They also identify unplanned changes which may occur, assess their possible impact and to model/test the effect of possible modification and improvement.