Learning the fundamentals

Throughout this book, we’ll discuss many concepts that are core to any program manager, as well as some that are more specific to the TPM specialization. Let’s briefly discuss some of these terms so that we have a shared foundation to build upon.

The first terms to discuss are project and program. There are some companies where the “P” in TPM actually refers to “Project” instead of “Program,” and this can lead to some confusion. We’ll cover it in greater detail in Chapter 2, Pillars of a Technical Program Manager, but suffice to say that a program comprises multiple related projects. A project manager may run more than one project at a time, but they may not have a common goal. A program manager runs multiple projects that share a common goal and possibly multiple programs too. With that, let’s tackle some of the key management areas that are common between project and program managers...