Program Management

Chris Pratley wrote a very good post on Program Management and what it really is. It really makes me want to do this even more, being the buffer between IT and Marketing/Sales. I took on the current position exactly because of this. I love both worlds but I am neither a sales guy nor a developer. I get along with both of them really well, love technology, love business (building a foundation via an MBA here) and hate it when the two sides clash for the little reason of miscommunication. This part is great:

_I’m not sure where this saying came from originally, but one way to describe PMs is that they not only “pick up and run with the ball, they go find the ball”. That really defines the difference between “knowing what to do and doing it”, and “not knowing what to do, but using your own wits to decide what to do, then doing it”. That means as a PM you are constantly strategizing and rethinking what is going on to find out if there is something you are missing, or the team is missing. You’re also constantly deciding what is important to do, and whether action needs to be taken. The number of such decisions is staggering._

Totally 100% agreed. And I also agree with Chris that one great thing about a holiday is not deciding what to do. Especially not something that might come back and haunt you :)

Thanks for the post Chris.