I think what's confusing is that Program Managers have the word "manager" in their title. When I joined in 2001, I thought Randy and Gene had management responsibilities above what they actually had.

Cathy hit it pretty much. All PMs write specs, and, yes, Beth did too while there as a contract PM. In fact, Beth wrote the spec on the new Toolbox for VFP 8 that - in my mind - ranks as one of the best functional requirements documents I have ever seen. I use it as an example when teaching folks how to write good specs.

PMs were also the arbiters of the feature list: What will and will not be part of a release. Although we testers could push pretty hard in that regard (lol).



>Thanks. I pretty much knew that was how it worked, at least on the Fox team. As I stated earlier, it could be different for other teams. Program Managers on other teams don't always write specs and could have a very public-facing job. Beth Massi comes to mind.
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>>To most people outside MSFT, the titles are very confusing. Craig, I know you know this .. but for others reading the thread, maybe this will clarify.
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>>The Group Manager is the big shot in charge of the team. Ricardo Wenger was in charge when I was there. YAG took over after that.
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>>The Program Managers are the guys that write the specs. Randy Brown and Gene Goldhammer were both Program Managers. I know Randy also wrote a lot of code for FoxPro too. Program Managers report to the Group Manager and they have a lot of influence over what goes into the product.
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>>The Product Managers are marketing guys. They report to the Group Manager. Ken and Robert Green were Product Managers. Most people in the community see the title of "Product Manager" and assume that these guys run the show because these guys are the ones making the public appearances .. but it ain't so. Nobody reports to them.
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>>The developers all report to the Group Manager.
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>>The testers have a Test Manager that they report to and the Test Manager reports to the Group Manager.