Like milk and cookies
An effective partnership between program management and operations is a key part of ensuring a company runs well. A good example of such a partnership is planning — long-range, annual, or quarterly. Whether doing planning at the corporate or the organizational level, operations and program management usually partner closely on this process. Operations owns defining and refining the planning process and relies on program management to execute that process from end to end. Program managers share feedback with operations throughout the process so adjustments can be made as needed. Program managers also ensure the plans align with strategic goals. For example, with C-level execs setting the overall direction for their organizations, employees within an organization surface additional, often innovative project ideas, and program managers ensure those ideas are considered by organizational leadership who determine whether it’s work that should be done or strays too far from the organizational goals and should be deprioritized. Planning is a business-critical company activity, and operations and program management should work in concert to ensure this effort is productive.
