Program management refers to the specific and coordinated efforts to group a series of similarly structured or interrelated projects for the purposes of taking advantage of their cohesion for the purposes of garnering and gaining benefits and or other forms of control advantages and improvements in efficiency and cost savings at times. There are a number of elements and layers to the act of program management. Among the most crucial involve the early stages in which it must be determined exactly where any particular overlaps and or redundancies may exist and on which their may be an effort to most effectively reduce those redundancies. This can include the utilization of supplies and equipment as well as in regards to the most effective delegation of staff, as well as in the area or scheduling both for individual staff members as well as the timelines of various projects within the whole of the program.
This term is defined in the 3rd and the 4th edition of the PMBOK.