Earned Benefit Program Management ─ Aligning, Realizing, and Sustaining Strategy

The book addresses all of the principal aspects of program management. It explains how to protect against invalid numerical manipulation and provides a coherent solution for total program management. Starting with an integrated view of the project management domains, the book then focuses on an innovative benefits realization model and calculation technique applicable across the whole program management life cycle. The model is then integrated with fresh approaches to schedule, risk and issue management, capacity planning, procurement, and the earned benefit method for integrated progress tracking. It concludes with a discussion of performance and communications management.

Crispin Piney (known as "Kik") has been involved in the project world since joining the IT Group at CERN, the European Laboratory for Particle Physics, in the 1970s, working on cutting-edge development projects. He later moved to the Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC), initially in England, before relocating to DEC’s European technical centre in the south of France. While he was with DEC, Kik gained a deeper understanding of the importance of methodology, business alignment, and stakeholder relationship management.

After the acquisition of DEC by Compaq, Kik left in 2000 and set up as an independent consultant and trainer in project management. He invested enthusiasm, time, and effort working as a volunteer with the Project Management Institute (PMIR) on the majority of their standardization efforts, from the Organizational Project Development Management Maturity Model (OPM3R) through each the standards for projects, for programs, and for portfolio management (he was listed as a "significant contributor" for the first edition of both the program and the portfolio standards). He also contributed actively to the PMI competency development framework, the lexicon, and the Practice Guide for Scheduling. He is one of the three authors of PMIR’s Practice Guide for Project Risk Management. Kik gained his Project Management Professional (PMPR) certification with PMI prior to leaving DEC. He later became the first person in France to acquire the corresponding certifications for programs (PgMPR) and, when it became available, for portfolios (PfMPR).

He has published a number of articles ranging across all aspects of projects, programs, and portfolios. He has presented at most PMIR EMEA congresses since 2002, as well as at regional events. Additionally, Kik provides training on a wide range of topics in the project management space. He has developed and delivered courses across a broad range of industries including construction, perfumery, information technology, steelworks, aviation, packaging, electronics, and banking. His approach to understanding and expanding the field of knowledge in the area of project, program, and portfolio management is based on the following principles:

• The need for alignment between all domains in order to ensure consistency
• The need for clarity and precision in order to avoid misunderstandings
• The willingness to generalize and expand valid concepts in order to increase their generality and potential value
• The willingness to reject ideas and beliefs, however well established, that are based on false or doubtful premises, and to discover creative, verifiable alternatives with which to replace them
• And, finally, the wish to share his enjoyment of the subject and, wherever possible, his sense of fun