Technical Program Manager's Handbook: Empowering managers to efficiently manage technical projects and build a successful career path Paperback – 16 Dec. 2022

For someone new to the role, this has given me an excellent baseline to get going and make impact really quickly. I've definitely used a lot of the content of the book to my work. I am thankful.

First off, let me say, writing a handbook is an ambitious task. Unlike a student or machine handbook, a lot of what a TPM does is context-based — what are the practices in the company, how do to the teams work, what is the culture of the organisation…?For each section, I’m using a star (for things I liked) and a wish (well, for things I wished were included)What is a Technical Program ManagerStar: This is my favourite part of the book. I like the look into the history and the comparison across companies and job roles.Fundamental of Program ManagementStar: I would say this covers all areas of Program Management (the “PM” part) that at TPM needs to do and think about, along with some good advice and tools to use. If you followed this part, you would ensure you were covering all the key elements of a well-run program.Wish: The reality of programs is that they are a messy melting pot of people, processes, external pressures, market conditions, etc. This means that often things don’t pan out exactly how you plan them at the start. I’d probably cover more on “when things don’t go to plan”.I also wish there was more about estimation. It’s briefly covered, but in technical programs, estimation is often a controversial topic. At a minimum, exploring and discussing things like the “cone of uncertainty” or talking about the impact of technical tradeoffs when working towards a fixed time.Technical ToolsetWish: Software — its engineering, architecture and delivery is a huge topic. Whilst the focus was on code development, system design and architecture, I wish the author had added in other things to explore. One way to do this might have been to follow a piece of code through to writing to production (so you can touch topics such as code integration, compilation, observability, deployment architectures, release strategies, etc.)I would recommend this book to the following people:Tech folk interested in moving into a TPM roleGrads entering a tech consultancy. Even if not working day to day in program management, there are elements you end up either being exposed to or supporting leaders with.I’d not recommend this to more experienced delivery managers or TPMs — for those folk, I’d say “Think about an area that you would like to improve on and delve into detail on that topic”