Navigating the framework

You should be able to find all the guidance you are going to need in the framework, as with all documentation the trick is finding the information that you need.

There are two parts to the framework:

a. The lifecycle – these are the stages that the projects and programmes will go through. Each stage has a number of milestones that should be followed and there is specific guidance on how to achieve each milestone.

b. The techniques- these are documents that explain the themes. These outline the concepts and techniques which run throughout the life of the project or programme. They provide you with an overview of the subjects, main responsibilities and the minimum activities that should be undertaken as part of the project delivery.

In addition to this there are other helpful features that should help you get the job done.

a. Templates, we have kept these to a minimum and simple, however one of the main benefits of programme and project management is shared knowledge and auditable delivery, so recording information and progress is a key task of a Project Manager.

b. How2guides, these are more detailed explanations and examples of how to use specific techniques that relate to project and programme management to help you deal with some of the complexities that are needed of programme and Project Managers.

There are linked to templates and how2guides within the text of the themes and the lifecycle so you can go directly to them when you need to.

INTRODUCTION TO THE LIFECYCLE

Everything is driven by the lifecycle. All projects and programmes must follow the lifecycle stages, it has been designed to be suited to the most complex programme and the most straight forward project, the difference is that a complex programme may take a year to pass through a stage, whilst a simple project may achieve it in a day.

To access the information in the lifecycle, click on one of the lifecycle stages and it expand to provide you with a simple summary of what happens in the stage and a list of milestones that need to be achieved.

To find out more about each milestone, click on it and it will then expand to provide some explanation of what the milestone objective is and some further information about what needs to be done.

This should have provided you with an understanding of what the milestone is about. Specific guidance is now provided under 3 headings:

Themes – if you click on this heading it will show the tasks with supporting guidance related to each of the themes. The task is in bold and should be completed before the milestone can be achieved.

Roles – these provide a specific task and instructions for each of the main roles so that each specifically knows what they should focus on.

Information – this provides a specific guidance on the information that should be used as input for each of the theme and role activities and the output that is created by each activity.

INTRODUCTION TO THE THEMES

Themes are the concepts that are present every day in the life of a project or programme, so should be embedded in the minds of the programme and project teams.

There are 8 themes in the framework, and under each of these 8 headings a number of concepts and techniques are covered. The heading on the left hand side are labelled “Techniques”, this is because other information can be stored in this menu (for example, this navigation guide!)

The themes are explained in an overview which can be found in the 'T' menu.  Also, within the lifecycle there is specific instructions and guidance related to the theme and tasks.

Within each of the theme pages you will find:

a. A set of standards the programmes and projects should follow

b. Specific responsibilities for each of the main roles

The following table is a quick summary of where to find information on some key topics:

Governance	Overview	Standards	Difference for programmes	Governance Roles	How2Guides
Management Control	Overview	Standards	Difference for programmes	Governance Roles	How2Guides
Benefits management	Overview	Standards	Difference for programmes	Governance Roles	Benefits Management Cycle	How2Guides
Stakeholder & Communications	Overview	Standards	Difference for programmes	Governance Roles	Stakeholder Management Cycle	How2Guides
Planning	Overview	Standards	Difference for programmes	Governance Roles	Planning Management Cycle	How2Guides
Risk & Issue management	Overview	Standards	Difference for programmes	Governance Roles	Risk Management Cycle / Issue Management Cycle	How2Guides
Resource management	Overview	Standards	Difference for programmes	Governance Roles	Resource Management Cycle	How2Guides
Finance & Business Case	Overview	Standards	Difference for programmes	Governance Roles	Finance Management Cycle	How2Guides