Your house is one project inside your builder's portfolio. That's why your supervisor may be running 20 other jobs, and why your build can stall when the builder shifts trades and resources elsewhere. Understanding the difference between projects, programs and portfolios helps you see your build the way your builder's managers see it.
Projects
A project is temporary work with a clear goal, a start and an end, a budget and a set scope. It delivers something unique.
Your new home is a project. It starts with the contract and site start, it ends at practical completion and handover, and it's measured on time, cost and quality.
Projects are run using a project management method. Traditional "waterfall" planning, where each stage follows the last, suits most house builds. Agile and Kanban ideas can help with parts of the process. Read more about Agile in house building and Kanban.
Programs
A program is a group of related projects managed together, because coordinating them gives benefits you can't get by running each one separately.
For a builder, a program might be a new estate release of 40 homes. Managing them together lets the builder:
- book trades in a steady flow from house to house
- order materials in bulk and schedule deliveries
- share supervisors and site facilities
- deal with one developer, one set of estate covenants and one set of service connections
A program manager looks after the dependencies between the projects and makes the trade-offs, such as which homes get the bricklayer first.
Portfolios
A portfolio is the highest level. It's everything the organisation is doing: all its programs and individual projects, managed against the company's strategy and resources.
A builder's portfolio might include all its estates, display homes, knock-down rebuilds and custom builds across several regions. Portfolio management decides which work to take on, where to put supervisors, trades and money, and which jobs get priority when resources are tight.
The differences at a glance
- Project: one defined piece of work. House-building example: your new home. Managed by your site supervisor or project manager. Measured on time, cost and quality.
- Program: a group of related projects managed together. House-building example: a 40-home estate release. Managed by a construction or program manager. Measured on the combined benefit across all homes.
- Portfolio: everything the business is doing. House-building example: all of a builder's estates, display homes and custom builds. Managed by the directors and senior managers. Measured on strategy, profit and use of resources.
Why this matters to you
- Your supervisor isn't only managing your job. Ask how many sites your supervisor runs. A supervisor stretched across too many jobs can't check them all properly.
- Priorities are set above your project. When trades or materials are short, the builder decides which jobs get them. A big estate release can pull resources away from a one-off build.
- Delays can come from the portfolio, not your site. If your build goes quiet for weeks with no obvious reason, ask whether trades have been moved to other jobs.
- Volume affects quality. A builder that takes on more work than its people and systems can handle will show it in every project.
Before signing, ask your builder how many homes they're building at the moment, how many jobs each supervisor runs, and how they schedule trades between sites.
Further reading
Building Your Dream Home: Balancing Time, Cost, and QualityBuilding a new home can be both exciting and challenging. To ensure success, it’s important to balance the “holy trinity” of project management: time, cost, and quality. In this article, we’ll explore how you can achieve this balance and create your dream home
Unlock Customer Loyalty Through Effective Project ManagementWondering why some residential builders have loyal customers while others don’t? The secret lies in effective project management. Learn how to transform your one-time customers into long-term advocates by mastering the phases of project management.
