Stacy Randolph

What's in a program manager's tool belt?

Developers get to talk about their fancy coding tool kits, the creative folks are Photoshop whizzes, Test has bug tracking systems. So, what tools does a program manager use?

Contrary to popular belief, it's not a whip. That's only used on people who don't communicate well.

We PM's have to know a bit about everyone's job in order to anticipate the needs of a project, so it's best to know a bit about all the tools that the project team uses. But we have our own needs too. Communication is your name and service is your game. With that in mind, here is what is in my tool belt-->

Everyone has these, but they are critical for a PM

1. Phone. Like, duh, right? Email and IM are SO much easier and less scary than talking to real people, but that's the lazy way out. I'm guilty of this, I'll admit it...I have to remind myself to pick up the phone and get things clarified.
2. Email. It's a staple, these days. PM's tend to over communicate with email, though. That's because we know about lots of details and we want everyone to be informed. But folks won't read your long email, I guarantee it. Keep it short and sweet. 
3. Browser. You have to stay on top of trends out there. Telligent works in social media, so our clients expect us to know what's going on in that world. Check what's going on in the industry as well as your interest. For example, I am into User Experience and I follow User Interface Engineering by reading their articles, blog posts and listen to their podcasts.

Must have tools

1. MS Visio. A picture is worth a thousand words. Visio is the tool to get you there and you don't even need to be a graphic designer. It's all about shapes and text. I use this for concepting with clients and the project team.
   
   
2. Techsmith's SnagIt. I couldn't live without SnagIt, period. This puppy not only does screen grabs (you can target areas of the screen OR grab a full scrolling window), but you can draw arrows, cut items, add text, etc. I use this to create bugs, communicate UI issues and in my specs & requirements. SnagIt is a beautiful thing and it's my ALL TIME favorite tool.
   
   
3. MS One Note. Someone at MSFT wrote a song and created a video about how much they loved this application--it must not be available externally because I can't find it now. At the time, I thought it was crazy, now I want to join in and sing! Note taking is at a whole new level with One Note. I used to open a Word doc or a Notepad doc and take notes that way, now I use One Note because you don't have to save! It just happens automatically. Also, you are no longer forced to follow a linear, paragraph spaced document--you can type wherever your cursor lives. If you want to get really fancy, you can easily link meeting notes to your Outlook calendar and even audio record the conversation.
   
   
4. MS Word. Requirements, specs, how to's, all require Word. Page headers and footers are important--it gives user direction on things like page numbers and polishes the doc.
   
   
5. MS Project. Everyone wants to know when things are due and who needs to do what. Over the years, I have learned to bubble up the right set of tasks depending on the audience. For example, clients need to know when the project ships and when their deliverables are due. They don't need to know when a developer is due to work on a particular control.
   
   Most folks' eyes cross when they look at a project plan, but you REALLY need them to look at it because meeting deadlines is what professional projects are all about. Project is a PM tool and it's really for us to plug in the estimates and see what story comes out, it's not the best thing to communicate with. I recommend taking screenshots of the project plan (with SnagIT!) and tailoring the view of tasks that to the audience.
   

Nice to haves

1. Adobe Photoshop. It can't hurt to know how to create a graphic here and there. I used to use Photoshop all the time in writing my specs, but Visio is just much simpler. I now use Photoshop for when I need to fill in (badly) for a designer role. 
2. Adobe Acrobat. I don't use this as much anymore, but it's handy for exporting project plans (instead of screenshots, perhaps) and delivering non-editable statements of work or change requests.
3. MS PowerPoint. If you give presentations, you'll need this. Some PM's like to use this as a wireframe tool because it has nice shapes. I don't like it because you don't have as many options as Visio like page size and shapes.
4. Instant Messenger. Before working remotely, I refused to use IM, it was too distracting. Now, I use it all the time to talk to my co-workers. Live Messenger even allows you to transfer docs back & forth. 
5. MindJet's MindManager. This is great for visualizing your thought flow, especially while brainstorming.    

I've said this once and I'll say it again: There are lots of tools that can help one serve people--email, web sites, project status reports, file sharing, ticketing systems, bug systems, etc. Those are just tools, though. An "in service" attitude is the foundation of it all. Well served people makes good business.