Program Management for Improved Business Results, 2nd Edition

Chapter 11Program Manager Competencies

What was your motivation for choosing program management for developing products? We posed that question to Gary Rosen, corporate vice president for Applied Materials Corporation. Rosen responded by stating the following:

When observing the differences between poorly run product development efforts and well-run efforts, I noticed the difference was that the well-run programs had a true program manager in charge. These people had a broad skill base that is needed—good people skills, good business acumen, and good system skills. Unfortunately, not a lot of people have these broad skills.

Given the roles and responsibilities of the program manager discussed in Chapter 10, it is a rare program manager that comes to these roles totally qualified to meet all the skills and competencies required. The successful program manager is constantly seeking to learn and broaden his or her knowledge and experience in order to take on more complex and critical programs. Senior management in turn needs to create a positive learning environment to encourage program managers to continually seek improvement and growth.

We developed the program management competency model in order to address the breadth, depth, and complexity of the program management role. The model provides senior management with an excellent aid to assist an organization in developing program management as a true discipline that can provide value through increasing the likelihood of successfully ...