Managing Business Partnerships
In a previous Tip we introduced the hierarchical necessities for the Program Manager to be successful. To continue, we will be discussing the need of the Program Manager to manage across divisional boundaries or groups that may or may not be a part of your corporation.

This becomes tricky with business partnerships. Who leads the program? How are issues resolved? What if the business partners are across geographical boundaries (including international)?

If the only connection necessary was an exchange of digital data, the Information Technology manager for the project would be talking with an Information Technology manager from the original company, both who report up the chain of command to the Program Manager.

It's not that simple. When the business partnership is wider in scope, the legal department of each corporation must define the responsibilities of each corporation. Having said that, it is the Program Manager's responsibility to ensure that the proper discussions take place and that there is a legal agreement as to what is being transmitted, by both corporations. The Program Manager for each corporation is also responsible for ensuring that the legal responsibilities of the contract are satisfied, as well as satisfying the business objectives of their corporation.

This is an important point. A "program" must be aligned with business objectives at all times. Each business partner has its set of business objectives and their involvement in the program must be aligned with their company's objectives. This relationship will create conflicts as business objectives change while the program continues to evolve. An effective Program Manager keeps tabs on all business partnership's objectives watching for issues that could potentially put the program at risk.

Managing Multiple Options
Previous to this, we have discussed the "program" involving many coordinated "projects" towards a common business end. The "many coordinated projects" could involve alternative solutions to the same business objective. For example, the cost to develop a product in-house is so expensive, that the business must investigate whether or not they want to enter or remain in that line of business. Because of time-to-market issues, a company may need to pursue multiple options simultaneously (in this case 2).

The Program Manager must be skilled in managing multiple efforts. They must set tolerance indicators (discussed in future Tips) to initiate cut-off points to select and end different options. This manager must watch key business indicators as the options may change due to economic or market conditions. They must work closely with financial officers and make recommendations to the executive community about the best route for the company for years to come. It takes many years to develop a full scale Information Technology system. Even with iterative implementations, a financial scale must be continually reviewed. A business may decide to "sell" the business before the product is fully implemented.

A business option is rarely discarded forever. Directions may need to change for corporate survival. Previous business options will continually be reviewed as an alternative with every change in technology, economic or market conditions. This could be one, two, five, or even ten years after the initial decision to go one way over another. The Program Manager must keep copious notes on the different initiatives, continually compare the status and resources of each, and keep track of the decisions to continue or Ôstop' an initiative. ALL the decisions WILL impact the corporation's bottom line.

Managing Outsourcing Knowledge Workers
It is inevitable that a project of this size will require the assistance of knowledge workers that are not employees of the corporation. This is such an important topic that we will leave this for next month.

For now, let us just summarize that the Program Manager must ensure that the program, including multiple initiatives, continues to meet the business objectives for all partnerships. This requires continual communication, tolerance setting and reporting, and quick resolution of issues. All of these will be discussed in forthcoming SBDi PM Tips.

SBDi has experienced Program Managers on staff to help you with your large-scale mission-critical products. We have experience managing outsourced and business partnership teams, which result in satisfying the business objectives. We can assist your organization in setting the strategy for managing these large critical efforts or help you to manage them.

Pat Ferdinandi