The Nature of Programmes and their Interrelation with Projects, Portfolios and Operations

Historically, the subject of project management focused on large projects in large organizations. Projects were portrayed as:

large stand-alone entities;

separate from other projects and operations;

with a dedicated team.

Projects were ring-fenced. They had few interfaces with other projects or operations being undertaken by the parent organizations, or with other projects being undertaken by the contractor (if there was one). The project team was confined within the ring-fence and was wholly within the control of the project manager. The project manager might not have had as many resources as he or she would have liked, but those inside the ring-fence were completely within his or her control; they were not answerable to anybody else. That was the view of projects which dominated project management thinking until the late 1980s.