A Workstream is a group of logically related activities required to complete one or more Plan Milestones. For example, the Head Office Relocation Project might be divided logically into the Human Resources Workstream, the IT Workstream, the Communications Workstream, the Construction Workstream, etc.
A Project Manager will create Workstreams within his Project and then create Milestones within those
Workstreams. These Milestones are referred to as ‘Project Milestones’. A Programme Manager will create Projects within his Programme (or utilise the Projects that his Project Managers have already created) and then create Milestones within those Projects; these Milestones are referred to as ‘Programme Milestones’. Typically he/she would create a set of Milestones relating to each subordinate Project and might add, say, an ‘External’ Project ‘of his/her own’ to plan key events relating to work happening outside the Programme (e.g. a local government council giving planning permission for the construction of a building) or events that exist only at the Programme level, such as the approval of the Programme itself. Basically only Projects have child Workstreams; Programmes have child Projects. In a Programme you can add Milestone Tasks to Programme Milestones you have created within the
Programme; but you cannot add them to Project Milestones you have promoted up from the Project level. A Business Change Programme Manager will create Programmes within his/her Business Change Programme (or utilise the Programmes that his Programme Managers have already created) and then create Milestones within those Programmes; these Milestones are referred to as ‘Business Change Programme Milestones’ or simply ‘BCP Milestones’. More typically, however, Business Change Programme Managers and Programme Managers will simply utilise project Milestones that have been promoted up to become Programme or Business Change Programme milestones.
Workstream Delivery Status
The Workstream Delivery Status of a Workstream that is complete is Black. The Workstream Delivery Status of a Workstream that is incomplete is one of the three Traffic Lights Red, Amber or Green. The Workstream Delivery Status of a Workstream is inherited from the Milestone Delivery Status the last Milestone in that Workstream.