Major Program Value Creation and Capture: The S 3 Framework for Mitigating Risk Propagation to Maximize Opportunities

Large-scale, mission-critical initiatives are increasingly deployed through major programs or assemblies of projects that span and situate across sectors, industries, and/or geographies. To better track risk propagation within major programs, this article reconceptualizes them as temporary ecosystems or interlinked organizations whose project-based interdependencies last until the program’s conclusion. This basis motivates our S 3 framework and its three unifying themes. Scoping identifies program vulnerabilities to disruptions. Scaffolding develops digital and organizational tools to connect program skills with needs. Sensing engages with those oft-excluded in programs. We then apply this framework to the Oman Vision 2040 program and a hypothetical peacekeeping mission scenario to demonstrate the framework’s practicality.