Baseline Outputs

Program artifacts

There is so much that goes into being a successful technical program manager. But what are the tangible outputs that you should be producing? These outputs are sometimes called program artifacts. Let's review some of the most common ones you'll encounter as a TPgM.

Program hub

A program hub is a one-stop shop for all information about the program.

You are the glue that connects the diverse array of stakeholders. One way to add value is to make it ridiculously easy to understand the program from a high level and enable detailed drill-downs by anybody.

The program hub contains many of the upcoming outputs.

Program charter

A program charter is created during the initiation phase of a program. It will help you and your team successfully stay focused. It should contain:

• Initial scoping

• Initial stakeholder list

• Working agreement

• High-level objectives and key results

Program plan

A program plan is how the program vision will go from an idea to reality. It should include:

• Work breakdown structure: This organizes themed chunks of work.

• Roadmap with milestones, detailed objectives, and key results: This provides an artifact to track progress against.

  • Many stakeholders will likely own this jointly, but there needs to be someone who drives and maintains it. We'll cover this later in the course.

• RAID log: This helps us understand initial potential risks, assumptions, issues, and decisions or dependencies.

Risk log

A risk log is part of the program plan but is regularly updated to reflect risk mitigation progress. Think of it as a running inventory of risks and their statuses. We're identifying it here because it's an extremely important artifact within the program plan, which you own.

Reports

Regular reporting is one of your main responsibilities as a technical program manager. Driving clarity with all stakeholders and maintaining alignment is largely made possible with high-quality reporting.

This usually happens biweekly. It can happen as often as weekly if the urgency of the program demands it. In other instances, monthly reporting is appropriate but is the least common.

Program discovery

A program discovery is a way for a technical program manager to assess the health of a program.

It's common for a technical program manager to jump into an initiative that's already been started. If this initiative didn't have a prior TPgM, take your time so you can properly assess the program's overall health.

Recap

If some of these things seem new or unfamiliar, don't fret. Throughout this course, we'll peel back the layers of each of these outputs to understand how and when to deliver them.

There will be other artifacts that you're involved with, but you exclusively own the ones listed here.

Ultimately, these are the staple artifacts you should create, manage, and utilize to drive clarity, alignment, and progress in your program.