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 S3 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.
