JD Meier

What is a Program Manager (PM)? While the Program Manager role seems unique to Microsoft, in general, when you map it to other companies, it’s a product manager, or a project manager, or a combination of the two.  At Microsoft, there are various flavors of PMs (“design” PM, “project” PM, “process” PM, etc.) and even …

Here is a quick map of the process groups, knowledge areas, and processes in the Project Management Body of Knowledge(PMBOK).  Regardless of the PMI certification, I think it’s useful to know how the knowledge for project management is organized by experts and professionals.   This will help you more effectively navigate the space, and learn project …

One of the most useful patterns I’ve found to stay on top of a project budget is to think in terms of a monthly burn rate. As a program manager, one of my responsibilities is managing a budget. In the early days, I hated managing the budget because it always seemed like a lot of …

I’ve been thinking about execution and the lessons learned.   I’ve summarized some insights and reminders. I’ve been lucky enough to learn from among the best, so I’ve been able to see what works, what doesn’t, and the difference that makes the difference.  The Vital Few Lessons In Project Execution Here are the vital few lessons: …

Early on in my Program Management career, I ran into challenges around cutting scope. The schedule said the project was done by next week, but scope said the project would be done a few months from now. On the Microsoft patterns & practices team, we optimized around “fix time, flex scope.”   This ensured we were …