Should we need TPM(Technical Programming Manager)?
I mean engineers can easily do their role with slight increase in their pay slip. Do you think they are still required?
A good TPM makes a huge difference. There are only three good TPMs. The rest are garbage.
Tpm is one of the most useless roles and probably first to get let go in the next recession
Some TPM’s are good. Depends on the expertise they have. I know many who just take meeting minutes and can’t figure out simple things and more like routers. Dealing with a few now....
TPM = glue or it equals knife. Depends on the org, the TPM and the products.
Key word is manager. I think there are two types of managers (people, program, project etc) 1. Is a good kind of managers - facilitators. They do what is needed to make sure optimal performance of resource the manage and know when to get out of the way and let the train roll. 2. Bad kind - power hungry no self esteem little sh$ts. They think that “manager” = control. They don’t care about anything but their own self.
I think it depends on person to person. I moved into TPM after being a principal engineer and SDM since I’m done with being on-call and other ridiculous requirements sometimes I have to take care of. Now I work 9-5 and feel much happier than before. And of course, I keep myself updated with some lc, just in case, if there is a recession and i had to make a shift back to being engineer again. It’s comparatively less pay than before but at least I can do stuff outside of work and on weekends
TPM role is grossly misunderstood and hence not fully realized by the person in the role or by people around it. I transitioned to TPM at a very young age and it took 5 grueling years to bottom out the role, fully take advantage and deliver high impact. It was one of the most challenging roles if you really want to "grow" in influencing skills. Most TPMs today are a far cry from what my role was in those days. I moved out to lucrative path of sw dev mgmt.
My initial challenge was not to become a dumping ground for all the work others didnt want to do. The best part was opportunity to work on widely different projects, presenting 6 pagers to SVPs etc. I honed my domain knowledge and was unshakable in the last few years I was on the role.
TPM is the role PgMs want but the SWE’s hate.
A good TPM is always loved by engineers when they actually make engineers life better and dont make it worse .
It's about focus. Tpm does a lot of admin typt work to keep project going, xfn communication, and coordination. Tpm also makes less than swe but most of them are senior