Aerospace Program Management: A Practical Guide for PMO Leads

The aerospace and defence industry is a space where giant  corporations manage multi-billion portfolios and deal with challenges that many other industries have the privilege not to encounter. With multi-year product lifecycles, hundreds of projects with a shared goal, and high cost of failure, building a tight program management system becomes a necessity. Managing work as interconnected systems, not separate projects, leads to better alignment, improved productivity, and reduces the risk of high-cost failures.

In this article, we’ll explore what aerospace program management is , what components should be included in a program management framework, and what role digital transformation of the A&D industry plays in improving its efficiency.

Key takeaways:

• Aerospace program management is the process of governing groups of projects and initiatives with shared resources and goals.
• The main challenges of program management in the A&D industry include multi-year lifecycles, shortage of resources, complex and easily disrupted supply chains, and high cost of error.
• A combination of PMI program management standards, AS9100, and Earned Value Management frameworks is needed to build a robust program management framework.
• Program management tools that are built for the aerospace industry are necessary to ensure visibility and efficiency in program execution.

What Is Aerospace Program Management?

Aerospace program management is the process of managing a group of related projects, aligning resources and business strategy to achieve the desired business goals.

Project management institute defines a program as a group of related projects that are managed together in order to achieve the level of control that is not possible if those projects are managed separately[1]. A program can also include small tasks that fall outside of the scope of specific projects.

Program vs. project management in aerospace

Here is a short comparison between project and program management in the A&D industry.

	Project	Program
Definition	A single initiative with a concrete goal.	A group of related projects focused on a shared goal.
Scope	Tactical.	Tactical to strategic.
Owner	Project managers, team leaders.	Program managers.
Example	Retrofitting the aircraft fleet with new radar systems.	Upgrading the aircraft fleet as a whole.

Why Aerospace Programs Are Uniquely Hard to Manage

Program management is a difficult discipline in any field, but the aerospace industry has some unique challenges.

Multi-year lifecycles & incremental development

In an industry as complex and technically advanced as A&D product development typically takes quite a long time. From exploring the concept to developing a working prototype, and then to putting it to production, a few years might pass.

This means programs should be managed continuously and while keeping ROI projections at an acceptable level throughout their lifecycle. That provides a set of challenges in visibility and data storage, as well as changing legal requirements and market conditions over the years, and maintaining the same productivity through staffing changes.

Shared, scarce specialist resources & retirement wave

As aviation project management is an extremely technically complex field, talent that can effectively drive innovation in the industry is scarce. This means that the organization will compete for a small pool of highly skilled talent, and they will often become bottlenecks in the pipeline.

Another factor that influences staffing challenges is that typically, the highly skilled talent is of an older age. The average age of an aerospace engineer in the USA is 42 years, and as of 2023, a third of A&D engineers are over 55. This means that more and more skilled employees are going to reach the age of retirement and stop working, with fewer skilled workers to replace them.

Without proper resource management, these factors will significantly bog down production schedules.

Strict regulation & compliance (AS9100, ITAR, DFARS, CMMC, DCAA)

Apart from difficulties related to production, the A&D industry also requires the management to deal with regulations. The strict regulations are required for safety and quality, but dealing with them takes time and effort, meaning that most A&D programs will need to expend resources on governance and compliance activities.

Multi-tier supply chains

In an industry as complex as aerospace, the supply chains are incredibly multi-faceted. Add to that the fact that the current geopolitical and economical situation can result in supply chain disruptions.

This results in a need to plan supply chain logistics with an understanding of the fact that prices might change drastically over the course of months and current suppliers can become unavailable for indefinite periods of time.

Geopolitical & budget volatility

Current geopolitical instability influences more than the supply chains in the aerospace industry. The global events that include wars, sanctions, and raw material shortages can also result in changing priorities, spending reallocation and shifts in funding.

High cost of error

The A&D industry works with high budgets and complex technology, so making errors in planning or execution means the losses are going to be large. This creates the need for more effective portfolio and program management and justifies investment in project portfolio management tools.

Core Components of a Program Management Framework

A program management framework in the aerospace industry is the model that determines workflows, standards, and procedures used to execute, control, and monitor a company's programs. Here are the most important components of it.

Strategy alignment & program governance

Alignment with strategy is one of the most important components of program management because it ensures that all elements of a program and the program itself are all focused on achieving a company’s long term goals. Without this component, program management will not lead to achieving goals, and only to some disorganized results.

Benefits realization

Managing benefits realization allows program managers to not only see that all projects are finished on time and on budget but also identify required business benefits and connect them to concrete projects. It allows for tracking benefits realization and either confirms that all expected benefits were realized or leads to adjustment of your assumptions about measuring benefits.

Stakeholder engagement

Involving all stakeholders of the program in its planning and execution is crucial for alignment of the whole company towards the chosen set of goals and avoiding conflicts within the organization. In case stakeholders are not on the same page, it might lead to conflicts of interests that pull resources in different directions.

Integrated master schedule & milestone management

An integrated view of progress of all projects in a program allows program managers to streamline program control and monitor all issues that may arise in resource productivity and project execution.

Risk management

Risk management protocols ensure that risks in supply chain disruptions, skill shortages, and poor resource allocation are identified and dealt with before they have the chance to interfere with program execution.

Read more: A Guide to Aerospace Risk Management: Frameworks, Processes & Examples [2026]

Resource capacity planning across projects

Resource capacity planning is one of the most crucial elements in aerospace program management as a company’s resources are one of the most critical constraints. Resources, especially skilled resources, in A&D are scarce and often become bottlenecks in the program pipeline when they’re overbooked.

Earned Value Management (EVM)

Earned value management is a program management technique that compares planned value behind projects and programs, actual value earned, and cost of execution. It provides an understanding of relations between investment cost and earned value and serves as an indicator of what projects should take priority and which management techniques should be applied.

Frameworks & Standards That Apply to A&D Program Management

Program management is not a singular discipline, a few standards exist that apply to this discipline.

PMBOK / PMI Program Standard as the backbone

Program management standards developed by the Project Management Institute are one of the most popular guidelines. They include standardized processes for:

• Benefits Management
• Program Governance
• Stakeholder Management

It’s one of the best guidelines to follow, especially for companies that already follow PMI guidebooks. But in certain situations, other program management standards may apply.

AS9100

The AS9100 protocol is developed by the International Aerospace Quality Group (IAQG) and includes all requirements in the ISO 9001:2008, the internationally recognized Quality Management System, as well as adds specific requirements related to the aerospace industry.

Its standards focus heavily on risk management and improving traceability of all processes.

Earned Value Management

The most important standards for EVM include:

• ANSI/EIA-748 for system compliance guidelines.
• Project Management Institute's The Standard for Earned Value Management.
• ISO 21508:2018.

These standards are aimed at improving management of program costs and value earned in each project.

Agile methodology

Agile program management can be an important part of software development, which is a large part of the A&D industry, but it’s not applicable for aerospace and defence program management as a whole. Typically, aerospace companies would use Waterfall methodology as the main one and use Agile in software departments separately.

How to create an integrated approach

In an ideal scenario, an aerospace company should include all three of these standards in creating its own program management framework.

• PMI standards should serve as a main way of managing a program lifecycle.
• AS9100 should be the backbone of quality control and risk management.
• EVM standards should inform a company’s investment decisions.

Agile methodology can be a useful workflow for managing software development.

Most companies should analyze the existing standards and create a mix of processes that work for their specific case.

Best Practices for Managing Aerospace Programs

Each aerospace company is unique in its requirements and difficulties they have to deal with. There are, however, a few best practices that are common for all companies.

Prioritize across the portfolio

Prioritizing projects and tasks within a single program might not always work as intended, as some key resources, both skilled talent and equipment, might be used across different programs. Prioritizing work across the portfolio as a whole reduces the risk of overloading the same constrained resources that leads to bottlenecks.

One of the effective prioritization techniques is to prioritize work based on both value it can bring to the company and the current or forecasted resource constraints. This allows for delivering maximum business value with available resources.

Plan capacity before the program starts

Since the A&D industry works with high budgets and constrained resources, fixing capacity issues only after they arise often leads to significant delays and financial losses. The solution is predicting future resource capacity based on projected resource demands and resource availability to prevent bottlenecks during program execution.

Protect schedules with buffers

One of the most common best practices in program management is planning work with time and capacity buffers. unpredictable issues can arise during program execution, and creating a tightly packed schedule means a single disruption can throw off the whole program plan.

Detect and eliminate bottlenecks early

Even with proper capacity planning, program execution can sometimes run into bottlenecks. Use program progress monitoring software to catch bottlenecks as they’re beginning to form to resolve them before they disrupt schedules, delay dependent work, and affect overall program delivery.

Make data-driven decisions

In complex multi-project environments, making decisions based on manual analysis can lead to poor decision making resulting in wrong priorities, ineffective resource allocation, bottlenecks, delays, and lost value. Use scenario analytics software to experiment with different decisions and find the best option before committing to it.

Manage dependencies across interrelated projects as one system

Dependencies between projects that include both shared resources and dependency of one project on the other one’s completion can extend beyond programs. Consider dependency management at the level of the organization as a whole instead of programs to have more of a high-level view potential resource and schedule conflicts and avoid cross-program bottlenecks.

Build compliance and audit-readiness in from the start

Program management is all about standardization of processes. To be able to not only effectively manage A&D programs but also analyze the approach itself, find where it fails, and improve it. You need to start building your framework with compliance, traceability, and audit-readiness in mind.

Engage an active executive sponsor

PMI’s research indicates that engaging the executive sponsor of the program is the top factor in program success[2]. Build open and clear communication with the sponsor of the program and project sponsors to ensure they’re all on the same page about the program execution plan.

Tools & Software for Aerospace Program Management

Choosing the right A&D program management tools can be the reason between programs running smoothly and constant delays. Here are a few key components you should consider when choosing a tool for your company:

• Multi-project resource management: visualizing resource utilization, workload, dependencies, and work progress across multiple interdependent projects and programs.
• Capacity forecasting: predicting future capacity based on company resources and projected resource demands to detect potential shortages and bottlenecks before program execution.
• Portfolio prioritization:adding priority status to projects and visualizing the priority hierarchy to ensure that limited resources are directed to the most important work.
• Scenario analysis: experimenting with decision making in a simulated environment to evaluate potential impact and find the most effective solution.
• AI-based portfolio optimization: using AI-assisted tools that assess value projections, resource capacity, priority, and other factors, to create an optimal portfolio sequence.
• Security/compliance (GDPR, MOD standards). Program management tools should have valid security certifications relevant to aerospace and defense organizations to ensure no leak of sensitive information occurs.

Finding the right tool for your business takes time and effort, but since aerospace programs are far too complex for making decisions manually, a good tool ensures increased efficiency. Implementing the right tools translates to concrete positive improvements in performance.

To put that improvement into perspective, let’s take a look at a concrete example. In the case where Dutch Ministry of Defence implemented Epicflow, an AI-driven multi-project resource management platform purpose-built for A&D, it was able to:

• Cut lead times by 30%.
• Improve due date performance from 24% to 77%.
• Achieve that without headcount increase.

See how Epicflow can help your organization manage constrained resources, coordinate complex programs, and improve delivery performance. 

Book a call with Epicflow experts to explore how our software can support your aerospace programs

References

1. Ward, J. L. (2009). Programs are not projects: boosting program management effectiveness. Paper presented at PMI® Global Congress 2009—North America, Orlando, FL. Newtown Square, PA: Project Management Institute.
2. PMI (2014). Executive Sponsor Engagement: Top Driver of Project and Program Success.

Frequently Asked Questions