Fundamentals of a Technical Program Manager

The program manager role has been around for as long as humans have organized to accomplish a goal together as a group. Although the name may not be as old, there were certainly program managers or project managers while building the ancient Egyptian pyramids. A program manager is a generalist in nature and can tackle any project with some proficiency, often running multiple projects concurrently within the same program or across many programs. The Technical Program Manager (TPM) role followed in the program manager’s footsteps to fill a specialized niche with the rise of highly specialized projects and programs. The TPM plays a powerful role in any technical project or program and has carved its way into the tech industry culture as a mainstay position, right alongside software and hardware developers, development managers, and product managers. Even with its ubiquitous role in the industry, the question of what a TPM is and how...