Programs vs. Sub Projects

[Rae Ann Prasnic]

How do you know when to use Programs versus Sub Projects? See below for a comparison of the features.

My recommendation: Don't be afraid to consider Programs. Even if your organization does not use the term, you may find the "rolling up" feature valuable. 

	Program	Sub Project
The Focus is On...	The benefit	The deliverable
Contains	Demands & Projects	Only Projects
Status Reporting	One report for all investments in the entire Program	Each project has their own status report
RIDAC	RIDAC info rolls up into the one Program	RIDAC info is individual and does not roll up
Rate Models	Independent rate models	One shared rate model (the parent)
Planned Start Dates	Independent of one another	Connected Planned Start Dates to the parent project
Task Dependencies	Can be accomplished through external dependencies	Can be accomplished through normal dependencies via Planning Console. Can see all Sub Projects in Planning Console of parent project.
Investment Portal	Program level rollups, but can also see individual investments	Can only see each individual project, no "master project" rollup
Portfolio/Program Workbench	Shows Programs in Timeline view	Can only see each individual project, no parent project rollup for timeline or Project KPIs
PMO Dashboard	Can see Program contents in rollups	Can only see each individual project, no parent project rollup
Analytics Tab	n/a	Data available

Let me know if this helps, Rae Ann

[Miguel Donayre]

I just used this as a reference LOL Thanks!!!

[manita3]

Thanks, that was helpful.

It would be great if you can you expand this to include rollups from resource plans, financials, time cards and expenses.

[EricZ]

Thanks, was looking for this, only question I have here, if we don't have a roll up of financials, what is the sense in using sub projects?

[CK5]

Can Programs have sub-programs?

[aserra]

I ask the same " Can Programs have sub-programs?" @CK5 @Rae Ann Prasnic 

Thanks !

[Pall Sigurdsson]

Additionally, if you are using Customer Project Management (as part of CSM), then programs can contain both (internal) projects and customer projects. On the other hand, if you create a sub-project in a project by clicking New on the related list, the sub-project is always a project and if you create a sub-project in a customer project by clicking new on the related list, the sub-project is always a customer project.

[Alpa82]

Hi Rae, This is very nice, would you also provide similar explanation  - comparison on the Portfolio x Program x Project?

Thank you very much

A.