Are you a Technical Program Manager or Program Manager? What's the Differemce?

[#1]

Hey all! Bryan here, Community Leader for Los Angeles! 

I'm curious, how many of you here are Technical Program Managers (TPMs) vs Program Managers? 

For those of you who are Program Managers (not TPMs) - how familiar are you with the role of a TPM?

What do folks think the difference is, and how do you communicate that to your fellow PMs? 

I think about this a lot as I consider the more prominent role TPMs have these days in the software industry, especially! 

Looking forward to your responses! 

[Justin Townsend]

Hi @Bryan Guffey,

If you're willing to hear an opinion from a London-based community participant this is my take FWIW:

• Technical Program Managers (TPM)s -> tend to be in charge of projects where the lion's share of the work is technical (e.g. software, hardware development and deployments), the non-technical components of a program are (an important), but secondary, consideration. Crucially, they are also interested, able or willing to be regularly involved in the technical detail if necessary. This might mean they are able to develop respect amongst the technical contributors on the program for their ability to collaborate, or "solution-ize" at the issue or task level. This type of approach is useful since it can give the TPM an understanding of the relative importance of technical requirements and issues from a planning and critical-path standpoint.
  • TPMs are often equated with people who may have done a technical degree (e.g. Computer Science, Engineering) and my experience this is often a requirement on a job description. IMO, this is a limiting convention. Just because one understands a technical topic because of a qualification in it, is not the same as one's ability to explain it to others...
• Program Managers (PM)s -> tend to be in charge of projects where the lion's share of the work is non-technical (e.g. business transformation, divestiture / merger), or concentrate on the business aspects of running a technical program (e.g. phasing, planning, budgeting, scheduling, stakeholder engagement). Perhaps they rely on an experienced technical operator (e.g. Principal Engineer) to help them understand some of the technical details which affect a critical path.

Common amongst great PMs though, is their ability to encourage a "safe space" for optimal performance from contributors, putting people together for effective collaboration (e.g. pair-programming and shadowing).

Sure this isn't a complete answer, but perhaps others have an opinion to contribute.

Good question.

Justin

[Sudhir]

What's the real difference between Program Managers (PMs) and Tech Program Managers (TPMs)?

Are these roles distinct, or are we just creating silos?

Here are some common takes:

1️⃣ TPMs focus on tech delivery and alignment, while PMs focus on holistic program management and governance.

2️⃣ TPMs do everything a PM does AND they bring tech skills to the table.

3️⃣ PMs excel at soft skills like stakeholder engagement and guiding the strategy, while TPMs bring hard skills and focus on technical execution.

4️⃣ TPMs work closely with engineers, while PMs focus on product teams and leadership.

5️⃣ Why separate roles at all? Just pick the right person for the job and call it a day!

Source-Linkedin (Felt this little simple)

[Karl from Ricksoft]

hey guys, former TPM and PM here.

At least from my experience before shifting to product management, there's an overlap between these two terms, program manager is a generic term that oversees multiple set of projects that can vary from digital transformation to special projects -- the project is not tied up to a specific technical expertise. a technical program manager is a specialized subset of program management that focuses on a specific industry or expertise, it can be TPM for payroll, a TPM for migration and deployment to cloud, etc. The role requires deep technical understanding in addition to program management skills.

hope this clear things up.

I always get the same question before when someone asks me about the TPM role since i specialized on a subset too -- blockchain and AI.