What is Synergy (Program)?
Synergy is the extra value created when components are managed together — benefits unavailable to the same projects run separately. It's the existence test for a program: shared platforms, combined purchasing power, sequenced adoption, integrated data. No synergy, no program — just a portfolio wearing a program's overhead.
Program reviews should name their synergies and check they're real: claimed synergy that never materializes is how organizations pay program-office tax on what was always just a project list.
Worked example
Three hospital IT projects run as a program share one integration platform (built once, $6M saved), one vendor master agreement (11% better pricing), and one training academy. The program office costs $2M/year and generates roughly $5M of it back in named, audited synergies. At the annual review, that arithmetic is presented line by line — the year it stops clearing the bar is the year the program should dissolve into projects.