What is the relationships among Portfolios, Programs, and Projects?

A Program is a group of related projects that are grouped together. A group of programs is grouped into a portfolio. A portfolio handles the governance of the project life cycle. It maintains the program standards, a document repository for all the paperwork generated by the programs and any portfolio management tools.

The relationship among portfolios, programs, and projects is such that a portfolio refers to a collection of projects,programs, sub portfolios, and operations managed as a group to achieve strategic objectives. Programs are groupedwithin a portfolio and are comprised of subprograms, projects, or other work that are managed in a coordinatedfashion in support of the portfolio. Individual projects that are either within or outside of a program are still consideredpart of a portfolio. Although the projects or programs within the portfolio may not necessarily be interdependent ordirectly related, they are linked to the organization’s strategic plan by means of the organization’s portfolio.organizational strategies and priorities are linked and have relationships between portfolios and programs, and between programs and individual projects.