Technical Program Management

Technical Program Management is a strategic organizational function that oversees one or many technical projects for a company. Programs are distinct from portfolios, projects, and products, and Technical Program Managers (TPMs) must possess a distinct set of skills and competencies. In this course you will learn to differentiate between programs, portfolios, projects, and products. Next, explore the Technical Program Manager role and responsibilities, compare the role of the TPM with other team roles, list key skills and competencies, and identify the required technical expertise for this role. Finally, discover program management frameworks and methodologies and technical program management life cycle. After completion of the course, you'll be able to identify the benefits and value created by a technical program and recognize the challenges of Technical Program Management.

Technical programs generally follow a life cycle consisting of three phases, including the program definition phase, the delivery phase, and the closing phase. During each phase, the Technical Program Manager (TPM) performs activities to support the success of the program. In this course, you will learn about the technical program life cycle and its three phases. You will discover the TPM activities that occur in each project phase, including developing the program management plan, estimating program costs and funding requirements, and establishing the program schedule and milestones. Finally, you will see how a technical program includes the integration of program activities and deliverables and discover how a program can create synergy across the organization. Upon completion, you'll be able to outline the technical program life cycle and its phases, recognize the program activities and deliverables that contribute to a technical program, and identify ways that a program can create synergy across the organization.

Technical program management requires strong stakeholder collaboration and communication. Because of the unique challenge of relaying technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders, Technical Program Managers (TPMs) must possess a distinct set of skills and competencies. In this course, you will discover the role of the TPM in stakeholder communications. Then you will learn how to identify stakeholders, establish a stakeholder communication plan, and describe Agile fundamentals to stakeholders. Next, you will focus on the importance of transparency, find out how to collect requirements and outline clear expectations, and examine stakeholder collaboration and engagement. Finally, you will explore feedback loops and retrospectives and investigate perspectives of change and reprioritization of requirements. After completing the course, you will be able to analyze complex stakeholder needs, facilitate ongoing stakeholder engagement, and apply communication and collaboration skills in a technical program.

The technical program manager must consider the organization's governance framework and structure, as well as the program environment. This includes interpreting processes, rules, and regulations to ensure compliance with the program. In this course, you will explore the framework for effective program management, including the governance hierarchy. You will focus on key environmental factors that can impact program governance and learn how to collaborate with the project management office (PMO), regulating bodies, and committees. Next, you will examine concepts of team structure, culture, and norms. Then you will find out how to support transparency and accountability, and how to promote data privacy, security, and ethics. You will identify governance activities across the program life cycle, investigate how to prioritize Lean program governance, and how to practice efficient documentation and knowledge management. Finally, you will complete a self-assessment for Lean readiness.

The Technical Program Manager plays a key role in facilitating change. Their responsibilities include determining the need for change, analyzing change readiness of the organization and stakeholders, and preparing the change management plan. In this course, you will learn to facilitate change to deliver benefits, examine the change life cycle, specify metrics to track progress, and identify the levels of change. You will also learn to manage change-related documentation and create an environment that is conducive to continuous improvement and innovation. Finally, you will perform a digital transformation readiness assessment.

The Technical Program Manager may encounter complex problems and situations despite their best efforts to plan for program success. As unique challenges and unexpected roadblocks arise, they will need to be addressed. In this course, you will learn to identify and resolve unclear requirements, resolve resource allocation conflicts, modify dependencies across projects and teams, evaluate shifting priorities, and negotiate with challenging stakeholders. You will also learn to analyze impediments to scaling, prepare for unknown technology risks, examine new program constraints, describe cybersecurity blind spots, and recognize chaos theory in complex systems. After completion of the course, you'll be able to identify and resolve complex problems that may arise in a technical program.

Technical program management involves the strategic alignment of projects and subsidiary programs to achieve the technical program goals. In this course, you will learn how to define strategic alignment, support the strategic plan, and describe program goals and objectives. Then you will find out how to construct a program roadmap and examine the integration of project goals with program goals. Next, you will explore collaboration across projects and subsidiary programs, vendor relationships, and integration with seller deliverables. Finally, you will discover how to establish efficient resource utilization, analyze progress and challenges, develop a risk management strategy, and facilitate communication and problem-solving efforts. Upon completion, you'll be able to define and support strategic alignment of projects and subsidiary programs to achieve technical program goals.

Technical programs face risks from a variety of sources, both internal and external to the program and organization. Identifying and preparing to address these risks is a key responsibility of the technical program manager. Successful risk mitigation will improve program outcomes. You will begin this course by exploring technical program risks, including internal and external risks. Then you will examine the differences between risk analysis in technical programs versus projects. Next, you will learn how to identify risk probability and impact, define risk management strategies, and specify risk escalation procedures. Finally, you will discover how to assess ongoing risks and risk performance, how to communicate and report risks, and how to use different types of risk documentation. After completion of the course, you'll be able to identify technical program risks, risk probabilities and impacts and assess ongoing risks and risk performance.

The technical program manager must possess a basic understanding of the concepts, tools, and techniques that would qualify their program as being technical. Technical capabilities also help the program manager to establish trust and credibility with stakeholders. In this course, you will discover systems architecture and key strategies and processes that support a DevOps culture. Then you will explore data management, networking solutions, and security principles and practices. Next, you will focus on cloud-based solutions, software development processes, and principles of user interface (UI) and user experience (UX). Finally, you will compare artificial intelligence to machine learning, learn about application programming interfaces (APIs), and investigate the importance of prioritizing domain knowledge. After completing this course, you will have a complete set of tools to run your technical programs efficiently and effectively.

The technical program manager is accountable for establishing performance metrics and anticipated benefits, monitoring performance, assessing benefits delivery, and reporting results to key stakeholders. In this course, you will explore the intended benefits of technical programs, identify key performance indicators (KPIs), and select appropriate performance metrics. Then you will discover how to evaluate resource utilization, measure stakeholder satisfaction, and report financial and schedule performance. Next, you will examine tangible and intangible value and emergent benefits. Finally, you will learn when and how to redefine program metrics and collect lessons learned. After completing this course, you will be able to confidently assess the performance and benefits delivery of your technical programs.

Final Exam: Technical Program Management will test your knowledge and application of the topics presented throughout the Technical Program Management journey.