How can you upskill your program management?

To enhance your project management skills, consider pursuing relevant certifications such as PMP, which provide comprehensive knowledge and recognition in the field. Additionally, engage in continuous learning by attending workshops, webinars, and industry conferences to stay updated on best practices and emerging trends. Practice effective communication, leadership, and problem-solving skills to excel in managing teams and resolving issues. Leveraging project management software and tools can also streamline your workflow and boost efficiency. Lastly, seek mentorship from experienced project managers to gain valuable insights and guidance.

In my experience as a program manager, regular skill assessments can be done through self-evaluations, utilizing industry benchmarks, and aligning them with organizational goals. Collaborating with mentors or experienced colleagues for feedback, and analyzing project outcomes against set expectations, ensures continuous growth. Incorporating emerging industry trends and technologies can also foster adaptive learning. Engaging in workshops and professional courses enhances technical acumen, helping both individual and team-wide development. It is about creating a safe space for my program's teams to develop & excel within. As we evolve our culture of continual improvement, we are proactively assessing our skill sets to ID ops to upskill.

Engaging in relevant training programs, workshops, and certification courses provides valuable insights into industry best practices, emerging methodologies, and advanced tools. Actively participating in networking events and forums facilitates knowledge exchange and exposure to diverse perspectives, contributing to a more comprehensive understanding of program management challenges and solutions. Additionally, seeking mentorship from experienced program managers can offer practical guidance and insights. Regularly staying informed about industry trends, technological advancements, and evolving project management methodologies ensures a proactive and adaptive approach.

Obtaining relevant certifications such as PMP or PgMP, actively seek opportunities to lead diverse projects, attend workshops, and engage in continuous learning to enhance your knowledge of best practices and emerging methodologies in program management.

Few things that I have found useful are measuring against the KPI that we set for each of program goals and more importantly evaluating against the periodic milestones. Since Program management heavily involves risk management, one can assess how many risks turned into issues and in what time frame. Learning from the misses and Risks that got mitigated well. Carefully understanding the inputs from various stakeholder leaders on why any metric/data is important to them that can help in building meaningful and useful reports.

Assessing your skills is a crucial step in personal and professional development. It can be done through asking for peer feedback frequently, self-assessment, skill gap analysis, setting goals for yourself etc. Remember, skill assessment is an ongoing process. It's not about perfection but about continuous improvement. By regularly evaluating and enhancing your skills, you can stay agile and relevant in an ever-changing professional landscape.

Certifications definitely help, but whatever you learn on-the-job is unmatched. Certifications are a validation that you have surpassed a specific level, they are NOT a way to learn.

Set up a regular cadence to share best practices, mistakes, areas of process improvement, and areas of weakness in each project/program with all Program Managers inside your organization, and documenting the best practices in a shared location will be beneficial in the long run. Also, getting regular retrospective feedback from the development/qa/infra teams regarding areas of improvement, areas of innovation helps Program managers identify, understand, and plan the solution proactively.

Learning from your peers can be a powerful catalyst for professional growth. Establish user groups where program managers from different teams can contribute their ideas, discuss challenges they are currently dealing with, lessons learned, seek advice etc. Embrace a spirit of curiosity and collaboration, and you'll be well on your way to excellence in program management.

Learn from your peers and share knowledge with them. Not all of your peers would appreciate this, because they might think you are showing off, and / or would be internally demonstrating peer rivalry, but you can definitely find a subset of people who are willing to exchange information and learn together.

Find out more programs which have new challenges. Don't keep working on same set of projects forever. 1. Work with more cross functional teams, where people are distributed geographically across your country or the world 2. Work on projects that have tighter schedules, more RAIDs (Risks, Assumptions, Issues, Dependencies) 3. Work with aggressive and demanding stakeholders, with whom no one else wants to work And many more...

One thing that rarely gets mentioned is learning from your own mistakes. I find it that it is always useful to do a quick assessment of your own performance as you go and, especially, after the program reaches major milestones. As a program lead, you will instinctively know where you could have done better. By integrating those learnings in the next phase of the program, you can also immediately test whether the learnings are valid or not.

To thrive as a program manager in new technology, you must be a perpetual learner. Diving into the latest programming languages, project management software, and tech trends is crucial. Consider obtaining certifications in agile methodologies or new programming frameworks to showcase your commitment to staying current. Networking with other professionals and attending industry conferences can also provide insights into emerging technologies and their applications.

Pursue certifications like PMP and PfMP to validate core competencies. Take online courses on specific PM skills and read books/articles on best practices. Attend conferences for exposure to new methodologies and case studies. Participate in peer mentoring with experienced PMs. Take on leadership roles in PM volunteer activities. Practice using new PM technologies through hands-on projects. Invest in complementary training on leadership, communication and strategy skills. Apply learnings to work and reflect on successes and gaps to guide development. Maintain self-care and a growth mindset. Continuous learning plus deliberate growth activities, rather than just task focus, builds PM skills throughout one's career.

Take up management of a diverse set of projects.e.g short term projects like Technology staging of a business idea, deploying a POC for evaluating a solution in your facilities or long term projects like Platformization etc. That will increase the horizon of your experience. In my perspective, Program Management is not only about executing the processes for achieving the end result but also problem solving and practicing collaborative techniques. There is nothing better than hands on experience

Mentor others and offer to lend expertise to others. It will make your problem solving skills noticeable and when another place will be looking to recruit for their organization, you will come to mind.

Learn from the team you are working with and the stakeholders. This is the case especially for social impact/developmental programmes which are implemented in a social system where there are no finite formulae and processes. A programme manager will improve their skills a lot by learning from those affected by the programme, being responsive to the stakeholders.

5 Simple Ways to Increase Your Knowledge from Other PM’s 1) Coaching and Mentorship Seek out mentorship or professional coaching. There is a community filled with PM’s who provide both on a very high level. 2) Online Courses There are countless online courses that cover everything PM. 3) Books, Podcasts, & YouTube Turn off the music and throw on a podcast. 4) Network I advise growing your professional network within all fields. 5) Attend Online Events Mark your calendar and tune in when amazing PM’s host virtual events.