By Patrice Waters, Founder & President, Tailored Testing Services
This is the first part of a series on project management. Look for Part 2 in a future issue of The Voice.
Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, Beyoncé, Taylor Swift, The Rolling Stones, Coldplay, Elton John, and Michael Jackson are arguably some of the greatest entertainers in the world. If you’ve ever had the pleasure of attending one of their concerts, you know the experience is unforgettable—an electrifying blend of artistry, precision, and emotion. Every note, every light cue, every transition feels effortless, as though the entire evening unfolds by magic.
But of course, it isn’t magic at all. Behind the artistry is a well-oiled machine designed to deliver excellence night after night. Did you ever stop to think about what it really takes to plan, manage, execute and pay for these concerts? I firmly believe it’s good program management.
Programs vs. Projects
To understand why concert tours are a masterclass in program management, let’s anchor ourselves by defining and describing programs and projects.
The Project Management Institute (PMI), the global authority in the field, defines a program as “A collection of projects, subsidiary programs and program activities that are managed in a coordinated manner to obtain benefits not available from managing them individually.”
Program management, in turn, is “The application of knowledge, skills, tools and techniques to a program to meet the program requirements and to obtain benefits and control not available by managing projects individually.”
In plain language:
Projects deliver outputs.
Programs deliver outcomes.
A project is a single building block, such as a stadium show in Chicago, a merchandise rollout in Paris, a marketing campaign in Tokyo. But the program is the tour itself. It is the strategy that ensures all of those projects combine into something larger, more profitable, and more impactful than any one city stop could achieve alone.
Why concert tours are programs, not just projects
Take Taylor Swift’s “Eras Tour”. It has broken global records, exceeding over a billion dollars and revitalizing local economies in every city it visited. Each concert was its own project, with deliverables:
- Venue secured and compliant with regulations.
- Stage assembled and tested.
- Equipment transported and functional.
- Security and safety plans executed.
- Performance delivered on time.
But the program is much bigger: creating cultural impact, expanding global reach, setting new revenue records and deepening fan loyalty.
This distinction matters! When we mistake programs for projects, our focus is too narrow. We optimize for the short-term and miss the bigger picture. But when we approach tours—and our own businesses—programmatically, we align every project to a larger outcome.
The surprising connection to drug testing
At this point, you might be thinking: ‘That’s fascinating, but I don’t manage tours. I manage a drug testing program. What does Beyoncé or Elton John have to do with my business?
The answer is: Everything!
Drug and alcohol testing, like global tours, is not a collection of isolated tasks. It is a program — a series of interrelated projects designed to achieve strategic outcomes:
- Safer workplaces
- Compliance with DOT or company-specific regulations
- Lower liability and insurance costs
- Healthier employees
- Increased productivity and morale
When viewed as standalone projects, drug testing looks fragmented: one pre-employment test here, one post-accident test there. But when managed as a program, those same activities form a cohesive system that protects organizations, employees, and your reputation.
And just like a concert tour, the stakes are high! A canceled show may disappoint fans. But a failed drug testing program can cost lives, damage reputations, and lead to significant regulatory penalties.
Agility, flexibility and creativity
One of the most overlooked qualities of great program management is creativity.
Think about Elton John’s “Farewell Yellow Brick Road” tour or Coldplay’s sustainability-driven world tour. These weren’t just entertainment—they were complex business ventures infused with innovation. The creativity shone not only in the artistry but in how the tours were structured and executed.
The same is true in drug testing. Policies, compliance frameworks and testing protocols may sound rigid, but they actually provide the foundation that allows us to be agile and innovative.
Just as a music artist builds their sound on rhythm and harmony, a strong foundation in program management allows for agility and innovation. The Agile framework, first formalized in the 2001 “Agile Manifesto,” emphasizes flexibility, collaboration, customer focus, and iterative progress over rigid planning. In practice, this means valuing individuals and interactions over processes and tools, responding to change over following a fixed plan, and delivering value in small, incremental steps. This foundation enables program managers to pivot gracefully when priorities shift or when opportunities for innovation emerge. Like a jazz musician who can improvise because they’ve mastered their scales, program managers who ground their work in Agile principles create both structure and freedom — ensuring adaptability without losing the rhythm of progress.
These real-world challenges remind us that even with the best-laid plans, unpredictability is inevitable — which is why agility, adaptability, and innovation are just as critical to program management as vision and strategy. Consider the following scenarios:
- What do you do when a collector doesn’t show up to complete a post-accident test?
- How do you respond when supply chain disruptions delay test kit deliveries?
- What happens when you need to fire a customer?
The answer isn’t panic. It’s program management. A good program has contingency plans, defined escalation paths, and feedback loops. Just as a tour manager pivots when storms delay a concert, a program manager pivots when unexpected circumstances impact a testing program.
Summary
If you remember nothing else from this article, don’t forget program management is the invisible engine that drives success—whether in global stadium tours or in workplace drug testing.
Next time, we’ll dive deeper into the Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle (PDCA), explore real-world parallels between entertainers and testing programs, and show how you can apply these principles to elevate your own business.
Just as the show must go on, so must your drug testing program. And when managed like a world tour, it not only goes on—it thrives.