PM v/s PM v/s PM - A Tale of Product, Project, and Program…

#Short Article VS102:

When you hear the word PM in a Tech setup, which role does your mind automatically map it to? Never mind, it was a rhetorical question. And that is perhaps the reason why we need to bring other PM's to forth. Let's have a quick one-liner 101, before getting to the Requirements v/s Budget matrix:

Product Manager: one who understands the Business needs and is the brain behind the feature roadmap, that lays down the path to resolve user problems.

Project Manager (proxy to Scrum Master and cousin of Product Owner* in an Agile setup): solely attached to a particular team (Agile Scrum Train) and owns end-to-end team specific release delivery.

Program Manager: oversees a bunch of connected projects (multiple Agile Trains) and owns the overall delivery of feature roadmap.

*will not muddy waters by including the Product Owner role here (separate discussion for this bit)

It is important to acknowledge that not all Tech setups will have the luxury to employ these 3 different roles, especially those with small teams and budget constraints and you will often see a Product Manager conducting daily scrum, getting immersed in backlog grooming sessions with multiple Agile trains, reporting on product ROI to senior management, firefighting with Tech teams on a random Infra issue that cropped up a week before go-live,?and of course, doing the all-important job of maintaining healthy roadmap/backlog.

So, when (and how urgently) do you need Project/Program managers supporting Product Managers - perhaps, if you fall in Quad 4 or more importantly, in Quad 2 , it is high time you reviewed your Org structure:

Requirements v/s Budget Matrix:

#ProductManagement #ProgramManagement #ProjectManagement