Program Management of Technology Endeavours ― Lateral Thinking in Large Scale Government Program Management

When we look at a program or a project, to identify its size in terms of 'large' (the term 'super-large' is considered as part of large within the context of this book), it would be advisable to consider a few factors that determine the size i.e., effort, uncertainty and complexity involved in delivering the outcome (product or result or service). These factors can take into account - the impact of the project on an organisation's growth, budget, technologies, geographical conditions, communication, program or project environment, current knowledge, size of the application or product, number of people and other resources needed among others.
In general, the larger the program or a project the harder it is to predict the behaviour of its system and performance. As projects get larger, the number of potential inter-relations and connections between the components (i.e., sub-projects) grow in a non-linear fashion. Current standards and guides while are very helpful, lack practical insights into this management practice. This book is intended to provide the required lateral thinking in this field of management excellence.

Dr. Ali Mohamed Al-Khouri is the Director General (Under Secretary) of the Emirates Identity Authority (Emirates ID), a federal government organization in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). He is a member of the World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council on Social Security Systems and The Global Agenda Council on Data Driven Development. An accomplished author of several books, he brings his experience to the academic world in furthering the global knowledge repositories.