Posted by: @dani

During my project management research, I have noticed that there is often confusion between the roles and responsibilities of Project Management and Product Management, as sometimes the roles are seen as interchangeable and sometimes separate.

Essentially product managers oversee supporting the attainment of the needs and goals for the business and the customer while tasking the product management team to come up with the solution to meet those needs and goals.  Project managers are also responsible for completing tasks; however, they do not get involved until the initiative has already been defined.  Once the project team becomes involved, they play an important role in ensuring the completion of the project through resource allocation, budget management, and establishing quality controls (Produce Plan, 2022).

To help illuminate the differences I am listing some of the key responsibilities of both the Product Manager and the Project Manager below:

 

Product Manager:                                                                Project Manager:

·                Research	·                Separating Initiatives into Tasks
·                Creating Product Vision	·                Project Timeline Planning
·                Communicating Product Vision to                           Stakeholders	·                Project Resources Allocation
·                Strategic Plan Development	·                Task Completion Monitoring
·                Product Roadmap creation and                               development	·                Communicating status to                              stakeholders
·	·
·	·

                                                                                                               (Produce Plan, 2022)

Can you provide other examples which showcase the differences between Project Management and Product Management?

References

Produce Plan. (2022). The ultimate guide to product management vs. project management. Product Plan. https://www.productplan.com/learn/product-management-versus-project-management/

 

Program management is the process of managing programs mapped to business objectives that improve organizational performance while program managers help to drive organizational change through various projects and strategic initiatives which are implemented through team collaboration to deliver value to customer.

Project management focus on the delivery of a product or service while managing costs, schedules and scope. A project represents a single piece of work with a specific scope and a defined output. No matter the length of a project, the focus will remain the same and its success will be measured by the delivery of an output that may or may not be connected with the goal of a program.

Program management involves managing a program with multiple related projects. Programs are connected to strategic initiatives and are usually long-running or permanent. Programs can contribute to multiple organizational goals and contain many projects which deliver specific components of the larger strategic initiative.

Projects are like a slices of a program pie.

https://www.atlassian.com/agile/project-management/program-management

The product manager sets the vision for the product that needs to be built, gathers requirements, and prioritizes them. In contrast, the project manager acts upon this vision and makes sure it is executed on time and within budget. Complementary roles indeed, but distinct at the same time. Even though they might overlap in specific skills, such as leadership and time management, they’re two sides of the same coin.