Project management, as a discipline in its traditional form, is is insular, focusing on the definition, planning and execution of a specific objetive. The growing use of projects to effect significant organisational change has led to a widespread interest in programme management. Programmes by grouping, directing and initiating new projects set the context for projects, yet they too are subject to external influences and developments. Emergent thinking on programme management best practice has foucsed on the internal context, namely the marshling of projects and resources to achieve the desired strategic and/or synergy benefits. Relatively neglegcted, though crucially important, is the need to shape, embed and align the programme to the evolving needs of the organisation. This paper argues that, where programmes provide a bridge between projects and the organisation's strategy, programme management takes on many of the characteristics and competencies of strategic change management and organisational development. Programme directors and managers have fundamental roles as mediators' modeators and manipulators of the external context and pressures. They must embrace and deal with the ambiguity, tensions and interplay between the need for concrete action and the strategic imperative of openness, opitions and speedy response. Drawing on a case study, the paper illustrates argues that newly appointed programme directors and managers are often unprepared for the chaqllenges of continually shaping internal and external context, and frequently lacking the creativity, awareness and sensitivity such a role demands