Project Management Guidelines for Program Managers
A basis for "Good Practice" in a multi-project organization

If an organization is to be successful in the delivery of its projects, it is essential to establish standards by which those projects are selected, managed and delivered. And these standards must be consistent with the organization's strategic plans. While tomes have been written on "What is project management" or "How to do it" there appears to be very little in the way of step-by-step recommendations for establishing consistent successful performance across many projects in the same organization.

The following Issacon presentations have been adapted from work done by teams of project managers working in large public and private organizations. These managers were responsible for projects ranging from a few thousand dollars to multi-million, and across application areas ranging from construction, operation and maintenance to information systems, software and R&D.

A set of twenty-four Guidelines are offered in a "Universal" format and are recommended as "Good Practice". By adopting them and customizing them to suit your particular environment, they can become the basis for "Best Practice" in the management of projects in your organization. They are lis

ted in the approximate order in which they will be encountered in the basic four-period sequence of the natural life cycle of a typical project. Of course, some will argue about the sequence, but we've done our best!