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A Portfolio is like a roof over all Projects and Programs of an organization. All Projects and Programs belong to the Portfolio. The Portfolio manages Sub-Portfolios, Programs and Projects as a group to support the strategies of the organization. The Projects within a Portfolio do not need to be related (i.e. an organization could have Retail Projects and IT Projects in the same Portfolio)
A Program is a group of different Projects or Sub-Programs which have a common result. There are benefits which could only reached if you will manage these Projects as a group (i.e. Cost Reduction because of shared resources). So the Projects within a Program are always related.
A Project is a collection of activities which should produce an defined output within a limited time. That means that it has goal which should be reached in good quality in a defined time period. So a project has a start point, an end point and a pre-defined result. Another purpose of a project is to make Stakeholders satisfied.
A portfolio is a high-level view of all the projects an organization is running in order to meet the business’s main strategic objectives. It could be every project across the entire company, a division, or a department.
A program is a group of related projects that all contribute to the same business objective or benefit.
While portfolios and programs focus on a higher-level view of an organization’s activities, a project is a single undertaking: a series of tasks that aims to produce a specific product, service, or benefit within a defined timeline.
