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My personal point of view: The Program Manager role should be replaced by more specialized roles, or no role at all. I see PMs having 3 main responsibilities:

My personal point of view: The Program Manager role should be replaced by more specialized roles, or no role at all. I see PMs having 3 main responsibilities: Project management, user experience and defining requirements. The problem with this role is that it's REALLY hard to find PMs who are GREAT at all these different skills. I would rather have a project manager role, user experience researcher role, designer role, business analyst role, etc. If the project is too small to define each position, then I wouldn't define a role but rather get people to wear multiple hats. There are devs that are very capable at project management, designers that are also good frontend devs, etc. Or bring external help to support the specific needs of your project.

mooneater 12y ago
There are specialized PM roles (source: had one).
jackgavigan 12y ago
I think a problem with splitting the roles up is that you can sometimes end up with a leadership void, where lots of different people are responsible for individual pieces but nobody is responsible for the product as a whole. There are a lot of project managers who can craft a beautiful Gantt chart but know very little about technology. There are a lot of business analysts who are very good at going to a user, asking "What are your requirements?" and then diligently writing down everything the users says and creating a beautifully-formatted requirements document, but who don't have an in-depth grasp/understanding of what the user really needs the product to do. That can bethe difference between a product that meets users' requirements and a product that delights the user. I think you need to have a single person who is responsible for ensuring that the product should delight the user.
- kyllo 12y ago
  I'm sorry, but "delight the user" is the most gag-inducing phrase in the software industry. Please never use it.
  - jackgavigan 12y ago
    What do you propose I use instead?
    - kyllo 12y ago
      Works for the users? Solves the users' problems? Impresses the users? To say that our purpose is to "delight" users just sounds so corny and diminutive, it makes the software we build seem frivolous.
- javierluraschi 12y ago
  Yes, I agree, there should be a "single person who is responsible for ensuring that the product should delight the user". But that person is the product leader, a single GM or whatever you want to call it, and the task should not be delegated to a team of PMs. Someone needs to oversee designers, user experience researchers, business analysts, developers, operation engineers, testers, etc. Thats the role of the person in charge and thats why they get paid so much. This person should also be accountable for "the product delights customers" piece, and if this doesn't happen, is also the person who gets replaced.

mooneater 12y ago

There are specialized PM roles (source: had one).

jackgavigan 12y ago

I think a problem with splitting the roles up is that you can sometimes end up with a leadership void, where lots of different people are responsible for individual pieces but nobody is responsible for the product as a whole. There are a lot of project managers who can craft a beautiful Gantt chart but know very little about technology. There are a lot of business analysts who are very good at going to a user, asking "What are your requirements?" and then diligently writing down everything the users says and creating a beautifully-formatted requirements document, but who don't have an in-depth grasp/understanding of what the user really needs the product to do. That can bethe difference between a product that meets users' requirements and a product that delights the user. I think you need to have a single person who is responsible for ensuring that the product should delight the user.

kyllo 12y ago
I'm sorry, but "delight the user" is the most gag-inducing phrase in the software industry. Please never use it.
- jackgavigan 12y ago
  What do you propose I use instead?
  - kyllo 12y ago
    Works for the users? Solves the users' problems? Impresses the users? To say that our purpose is to "delight" users just sounds so corny and diminutive, it makes the software we build seem frivolous.
javierluraschi 12y ago
Yes, I agree, there should be a "single person who is responsible for ensuring that the product should delight the user". But that person is the product leader, a single GM or whatever you want to call it, and the task should not be delegated to a team of PMs. Someone needs to oversee designers, user experience researchers, business analysts, developers, operation engineers, testers, etc. Thats the role of the person in charge and thats why they get paid so much. This person should also be accountable for "the product delights customers" piece, and if this doesn't happen, is also the person who gets replaced.