The Program Manager

Yea, my job finally exists. To absolutely no fanfare, except from me, The Office of Personnel Management released a new classification of IT worker, the Program Manager. It is

Work that involves managing one or more major multi-year IT initiatives of such magnitude they must be carried out through multiple related IT projects. The IT Program Manager leads, coordinates, communicates, integrates and is accountable for the overall success of the program, ensuring alignment with critical agency priorities. They are responsible for ensuring the work efforts achieve the outcome specified within the agency’s business strategy, including appropriate strategic, life cycle management and capital IT investment plans. Work includes project selection, prioritization, evaluation and monitoring, cost schedule management, risk management, quality management and resource allocations

This is in support of the 25 point plan from OMB. Here is the announcement and the entire, revised 2210 classification is here.

My opinion is that they are still missing a great deal of of the bleeding over into the acquisition field, but that is a discussion for another day. For now, I'll just be happy that there is now a difference between Project Managers and Program Managers.