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Champion Voices
PMI South Asia

PgMP® Provides Pathway, Skill Set to Move into Senior Roles

WHAT ARE THE ESSENTIAL SKILLS THAT PROGRAM MANAGERS MUST MASTER IN TODAY’S BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT?
Program managers should have a strategic mindset with an attention to details to ensure that projects meet the organizational strategic objectives. One should be able to envision the big picture and sell the vision to other stakeholders.

Program mangers should be proactive in their approach, and possess good leadership and change management skills to be able to negotiate and influence others towards a common goal. Communication skills are also vital in the process as it will translate into the required confidence in the sponsor and team members.

They should also have good analytical skills to quickly anticipate uncertainties to adapt and adjust to the course of action, using good judgement to ensure that the program delivers the intended benefits.

HOW HAS PMI’S PROGRAM MANAGEMENT PROFESSIONAL (PGMP)® CERTIFICATION HELPED YOU IN YOUR CAREER?
PMI’s PgMP® certification has helped me understand the nuances of program management in a crisper way. It gave me a good perspective on the alignment of programs to organizational strategy and to use the integration activities to realize and maximize benefits.It has given me good insights into the areas of program governance practices, stakeholder engagement, program lifecycle management, and how it integrates with different phases within a program delivery, finally concluding to program closure.

From a career perspective, it has provided me the pathway and the skill set to move into senior roles in my previous and current organization. The acquired knowledge not only helped me grow as a better program manager but also as a better leader.

WHAT ARE YOUR SIGNIFICANT CONTRIBUTIONS AS A PROGRAM MANAGEMENT CHAMPION IN YOUR INDUSTRY AND ORGANIZATION?
As a program management champion, I lead and support programs to align with the organizational strategic objectives to deliver the overall program benefits. I engage with various teams and manage program interactions with stakeholders. This includes monitoring and reporting on the overall program health and overseeing program conformance to governance policies and processes.

With my program management skills and experience, I provide advice and mentorshipon various aspects of program management in my organization and industry. I also provide guidance on different stages of the PgMP® certification and get involved in brainstorming to improve program management practices.
Certification Improved My Program Delivery Success Ratio

WHAT ARE THE ESSENTIAL SKILLS THAT PROGRAM MANAGERS MUST MASTER IN TODAY’S BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT?
In today’s business environment, program managers must be equipped with the following key skills:

Big Picture Thinking – Programs have a lot of ambiguity, so one must get the vision and mission of the program aligned with the organization’s objectives.

Leadership and Team Building – Programs often have a lot of complexity and run for many years, and hence program managers must ensure that the team remains constantly motivated. Team-building and sharing the program vision and mission keeps everyone aligned with the program outcomes.

Expertise in Project Management Methodology – Program managers must be experts in project planning, inter-dependencies, conflict management, and communication.

Change Management – Programs are mostly started with big transformations in the organization, so program managers should act as change managers. This will ensure that change management is accepted by all the relevant stakeholders.

HOW HAS PMI’S PROGRAM MANAGEMENT PROFESSIONAL (PGMP)® CERTIFICATION HELPED YOU IN YOUR CAREER?
A program is a group of related projects managed in a coordinated manner to obtain benefits not available from managing them individually. Before going through my PgMP journey, I used to treat programs as one big complex project or multiple separate projects. When I treated a program as a project, I worked under the triple constraints of time, cost and scope, whereas programs are run based on the benefits aligned with program vision and mission, which is in line with the organization’s objectives. Because of these conflicts, programs were delivered without any significant benefits. This not only impacted the organization where these programs were running but it also impacted my organization as we were unable to reap any benefit. Once I understood the importance of program management after getting my PgMP® certification, my program delivery success ratio increased significantly. I now have both happy customers and team. Due to repeated successful deliveries, I now head program deliveries across the APAC and US regions.

WHAT ARE YOUR SIGNIFICANT CONTRIBUTIONS AS A PROGRAM MANAGEMENT CHAMPION IN YOUR INDUSTRY AND ORGANIZATION?
When I started on the PgMP® certification journey, I found that many aspirants were not aware of the defined paths to achieve the certification. I have created a roadmap with all my key learnings which I have shared with more than 100 aspirants so far, and the same is available within the champion community.

Moreover, I have started discussions with industry experts to stress upon the importance of adoption of program management in any organization and ensure that everyone gets the maximum benefits for their initiatives, as most organizations still treat program as project, which is a mistake that eventually leads to program failures.

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