How to Become a Program Manager
These days skilled program managers are in high demand. The skills required to excel in this profession are multi-dimensional, requiring business expertise, coordination with communities, team dynamics, and process improvement.
Who exactly is a Program Manager?
The role of a program manager varies with domain. In the context of web 3.0, the task of a program manager is divided into several projects. Here, we will discuss in the context of community. As a program manager, you must monitor and organise the activities of community of your project. The major areas you work on include progress tracking and collaborating with the community.
What skills are required to become a Program Manager?
Program managers need to have a wide range of abilities that enable them to do their tasks efficiently. Management, communication, and leadership are examples of such skills. Program managers use these talents to manage their team of experts, set targets, achieve program milestones, and market creative ideas to senior management and executives.
The most crucial set of competencies for a program manager -
- Evaluationof what is happening in the community
- Interactionwith the community
- Resolution of conflict or escalation
- Setting objectives
- Management
- Resource administration
- Negotiation abilities
- Risk management and risk reduction
- Stakeholder management to ensure smooth operations
- Using cutting-edge technology or application to boost productivity
Program Manager maintains a good relationship with the external stakeholders through a strong community network to ensure that all the community members are well informed about the current offerings.
Who is involved in program management?
Individuals with project management authority work in program management. As a program manager, you'll collaborate with a variety of people to carry out your responsibilities. Some professionals you'll collaborate with include:
- Experts in their field
- Sponsors of the program
- Directors of Operations
- Program directors
- Coordinators of programs
- Managers of projects
- Managers of program budgets
- Technical supervisors
- Members of the program office staff (finance, control, administration)
Responsibilities of a program manager
As a program manager you lead strategically. You supervise delivering of benefits connected to the program's objectives. You implement program management procedures and methodologies for planning, management, execution, and delivery.
Your tasks include the following:
- Planning the overall program and keeping track of its progress
- Establishing program governance (controls)
- Budget management for the program
- Managing key program paperwork, such as the program initiation document
- Daily management throughout the program's life cycle
- Managing risks and concerns, as well as implementing corrective actions
- Project coordination and interdependence
- Managing and deploying resources across many projects
- Managing the communication with stakeholders
- Aligning the program's deliverables (outputs) with the help of the business change manager
How to Get a Job as a Program Manager
While there are various paths to becoming a program manager, most businesses demand you to have at least a bachelor's degree. You'll also require project management experience, and you can seek certifications to improve your skills and raise your work possibilities.
Education
Most program managers have a background in engineering, technology, or business. It may also be useful if they hold a bachelor's or master's degree in a similar discipline. Certifications prove expertise. On their resumes, most program managers list several project management and program management certificates. Without a formal degree, some program managers have worked their way up through project positions.
While education and credentials are necessary for becoming a program manager, being a great program manager necessitates more than qualifications and certifications—you must be able to use what you know in real-world settings. This necessitates knowledge and experience.
Program manager positions are competitive, so do everything you can to stand out and learn about these positions and their work through courses. And, one can observe and learn how any vibrant community works, understand the functionality which will help to become a program manager.
About nasscom FutureSkills Prime: FutureSkills Prime started as a platform with a vision to upskill/reskill every Indian citizen in emerging technologies. A novel skilling program initiative of Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY) and National Association of Software and Services Companies (nasscom), it incentivizes the cost of the eligible course(s), providing authentic and accredited certifications acceptable in the industry.
Courses run under FS Prime Programme are as below:
- Bridge
These courses are specifically designed to create awareness of Data Science, Machine Learning, and Deep Learning Tools & techniques among participants so that they can recommend and apply these technologies in real life and at their workplaces. The course is meant for graduates, entrepreneurs, interns, fresh recruits, IT professionals, non-IT professionals working in the IT industry, ex-employees, and faculty members.
- Training of Government officials (GOT)
Under this programme Government Officials will be trained on emerging technologies of AI, which will help them learn about cutting edge technologies and upskill them to make them work more efficiently for e.g. by creating new methods for documentation. In the near future, this would help officials to work more productively on new government & IT projects.
- Training of Trainers (TTT)
This provides an overview of Artificial Intelligence, principles, and approaches with which faculty can enhance their knowledge in the area of AI, ML, Deep Learning, NLP, Computer Vision, and its application. After completion of course, Faculty will acquire in-depth knowledge of AI and would be able to conduct training for courses under the FS PRIME Programme.
Written by Supriya Biswas - Program Manager at IDS