Program Management

My name is Shy Cohen and I’m a PM.

Program Management is similar to project management, but has more to do with the planning and execution of the project than with people management. In Microsoft, a Program Manager (most commonly known by the acronym PM) “owns” one or more features in a product and drives them from conception to ship. The feature team consists of relatively small development, testing, and user education groups that work together to define, design, implement, test and document the feature. However, the different disciplines working on the feature report in per-discipline management hierarchies that meet at upper-management level. The PM is responsible for the feature but has no direct reports (except for PM Leads, who have direct reports who are also PMs).

This makes the PM’s life very interesting, since one cannot just “put the managerial weight” on an issue when he or she believes that something should happen in a certain way. In essence, Program Management is the art and skill of making the right things happen with no leverage.

In my posts on this topic I would try to capture some of the things that I’ve learned about PM-ing. Let me know if there’s anything that you’d like me to cover in particular and I would do my best to comply.