Technical Capabilities of a Program Manager

Every technical program manager should have some level of domain expertise within the realm of software engineering. This is critical so that you know how to partner most effectively with your engineering counterparts by getting into detailed architectural reviews, get involved with code reviews, and know what type of analytics to look for or ask about.

You should feel comfortable diving into an architectural diagram and examining the potential impacts in other systems and services.

Without some level of domain expertise, you will lack the ability to map dependencies across systems and services. Major risks that you need to ensure are taken care of may go unnoticed. Your ability to climb the learning curve of new technologies might be more difficult because the fundamentals of software engineering are not solid.

Technical breadth vs. depth

What is the difference and what do you need?

The word "technical" typically denotes some level of expertise in something, so a technical role in anything has inherently more depth than breadth.

Technical program managers usually have technical depth in the software industry specifically. Technical breadth exists across the many fields within the software industry.