A program is a collection of projects linked in a hierarchical fashion. The Oracle Projects program management functionality enables you to create a program by linking multiple projects (and programs) to form a program hierarchy.

Programs enable you to view and manage workplan and financial information for a group of projects. This capability provides you with benefits that are not available when you manage each project individually. With programs, you can specify how multiple projects are interrelated within a program and review interrelated project information as a whole. You can track and report on rolled-up planned, actual, and forecasted effort, cost, and revenue, as well as progress and schedule information for all projects in the program hierarchy.

Therefore, as a program manager, you have a strategic focus on the overall program, rather than a tactical project-centric focus.

The linking of projects within a program follows a top-down approach. If you have the appropriate security privileges, then you can navigate to and drill down into the individual linked projects within the program hierarchy.

Programs have the following characteristics:

• You can link a project to multiple programs. For more information, see: Program Management.

• You can link projects and programs to other programs in an hierarchy. Therefore, a project within a program hierarchy can itself be a program. For example, you can designate a project linked to a program as a program and link other projects to it.

  The recommended approach for avoiding performance issues with key processes is to limit the size and complexity of your program structures. Since workplans belonging to the same program are linked, limiting the number of tasks in the workplan structure and the number of projects and programs in the hierarchy ensures smooth performance.

• You cannot link a project to more than one program in the same program hierarchy.

• You cannot copy a program hierarchy. When you copy a program, only the project designated as a program and its attributes are copied. The linked projects in the program hierarchy are not copied.

• You can individually create baselines for workplans of projects in the program hierarchy. Creating a baseline for a program's workplan has no impact on the workplan versions of the linked projects. For more information, see: Using Workplan Versions within a Program Hierarchy.

• You can publish programs and their linked projects independently. You can publish a program workplan version without publishing the workplan versions for the linked projects and vice versa. For more information, see: Publishing Workplan Versions in a Program Hierarchy.