Skills Required for Program Management

Thinking of making the jump from project to program management? A program manager’s job is more than being a very competent project manager. Let’s examine a few of the critical skills you need to fulfill a program manager’s responsibilities.

• Refined business sense. Program managers require significant business acumen. Just to initiate the program, you need to be able to position the program from a business strategy perspective, understand its priority compared to other active initiatives, and decide the best approach to work with your sponsor. From that point forward, you need to understand how the product(s) of your program will affect your business’ and your competitor’s market presence. A refined business focus is necessary to support the program’s vitality and maintain its proper priority within your sponsoring business. 
• Enhanced listening and negotiation skills. A program manager faces the challenge of dealing with multiple business stakeholders who don’t share the same agenda. The ability to listen and understand differing points of view is important because stakeholders in conflict often hold high-level positions. It can be tricky to negotiate and not give up control of the program–without threatening a major stakeholder. Care, listening and being sensitive to stakeholders is essential.
• Excellent delegation skills. A program manager relies more on delegation than does a project manager. You must rely on individuals to perform technical skills. You must also call upon others to manage projects, coordinate status reporting, detect and resolve project-level issues, and handle customer interactions. Program managers must be sensitive to the abilities and personalities of their project managers to know when to intervene for the sake of the overall program, all without being demeaning.
• Broad change perspective. Program managers must embrace change with a distinct perspective. Programs are more encompassing than projects, have much longer timeframes, and affect a broader cross-section of the business. In a changing competitive world, significant program change is inevitable, which is more significant than the comparatively short-term change created by most projects. Programs must handle change from the marketplace at large as well as the change the program creates throughout its lifecycle. This can be tricky. For example, you must make assumptions about the change that will occur from project 1 of the program before that project completes, so you can plan for project 5 of the program. You must manage both business and technical change. It’s a non-trivial exercise requiring broad, insightful thinking and embracing many possibilities! 

If you have skills to add to a program manager’s skillset, share with us in the comments section.

For more about program management, check out the Become a Program Manager learning path.