ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an outline description of programmes and programme management. The disciplines of project and programme management emerged during the early 1950s in the USA. Different types of programmes require their own specific approaches. The roles of people involved in by programmes are increasingly recognized and that influences the way in which programmes are managed. Four emerging trends for programme management are: projectification, coping with complexity, professionalization, and project-orientated organization. Programmes usually span a much longer time than projects. They typically progress towards an extended phase for realizing the intended benefits. The potential advantage of this longer timespan is to learn during the period of benefits realization and feed that learning back into the next projects or programmes. Another advantage over a project is that a programme plans for the handover of the deliverables and the period of usage. Risks and uncertainties are inherent characteristics of programmes.
