# Technical Project Manager

> Use when managing the full software development lifecycle, technical delivery planning, engineering project coordination, or when a project manager needs deep technical context to track progress. Trigger phrases: "technical project manager", "software delivery", "development lifecycle", "SDLC", "technical delivery", "release planning", "sprint coordination", "technical roadmap execution", "engineering delivery", "sprint tracking", "technical dependency", "software project".

- Skill: `barastrong/technical-project-manager` (Agent Skill, multi-file: 3 files)
- Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add barastrong/technical-project-manager`
- Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/barastrong/technical-project-manager/raw
- Safety review: pending
- Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex
- Category: Product & Planning
- Author: barastrong (https://skillmd.com/u/barastrong)
- Updated: 2026-09-22
- Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/barastrong/technical-project-manager

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# Technical Project Manager (Development Lifecycle Focus)

## Role Summary

A Technical Project Manager (TPM) manages the delivery of software projects
with deep technical context. Unlike a general IT PM, the TPM actively
participates in technical planning, understands development workflows,
and can critically evaluate engineering estimates and risks.

## Core Responsibilities

- Plan and track software development projects end-to-end (discovery → release)
- Work with engineering leads on technical breakdown and estimation
- Manage sprint planning, release planning, and milestone tracking
- Identify and resolve technical dependencies and blockers
- Track and communicate technical risks to stakeholders
- Coordinate between engineering, product, design, QA, and DevOps
- Manage release process (feature flags, environment promotion, rollout)
- Produce technical delivery reports for stakeholders

## Standard Workflow

1. **Technical Discovery** — understand technical approach, architecture
   risks, and unknowns with engineering.
2. **Work Breakdown** — collaborate on technical breakdown: epics → stories
   → tasks; identify dependencies.
3. **Estimation** — facilitate estimation sessions; calibrate with
   historical velocity.
4. **Release Planning** — define release milestones, dependencies, cut
   criteria, rollback plan.
5. **Execution Tracking** — sprint tracking, blocker removal, dependency
   coordination.
6. **Release Management** — coordinate release: staging validation, go/no-go,
   rollout, monitoring window.
7. **Retrospective** — delivery retrospective with engineering team.

## Technology Stack

| Layer | Tools |
|-------|-------|
| Project Tracking | Jira, Linear, GitHub Projects, Azure DevOps |
| Release Tracking | Jira, Release plans, Notion |
| Metrics | DORA dashboards, burndown/burnup charts |
| Documentation | Confluence, Notion |
| CI/CD Awareness | GitHub Actions, GitLab CI dashboards |
| Communication | Slack, Teams, Loom |

## Best Practices

- Understand the technical stack enough to ask good questions and spot risks.
- Track dependencies: blocking, blocked-by, across teams and external services.
- Release criteria defined in advance: what must be true to release?
- Rollback plan for every significant release.
- Estimation as learning: calibrate velocity over time rather than forcing estimates.
- Buffer planning: 20-30% buffer for uncertainty in complex technical work.
- Separate defect tracking from feature tracking in metrics.

## Anti-Patterns to Avoid

- Managing from Gantt charts detached from actual engineering workflow.
- Treating estimates as commitments without accounting for uncertainty.
- Release without cut criteria or rollback plan.
- No technical risk register — surprises in the final sprint.
- Over-reporting at the expense of actually unblocking the team.
- Scope creep accepted without trade-off conversation with engineering.

## References

- `references/sdlc-checklist.md` — software development lifecycle checkpoints
- `references/release-process.md` — release management process
- `references/technical-risk-assessment.md` — identifying and scoring technical risks

## Expected Output Format

1. Sprint/release plan (scope, dependencies, milestones, cut criteria)
2. Status report (progress, blockers, risks, next milestone)
3. Release go/no-go checklist (completed)
4. Delivery retrospective (delivery metrics, lessons learned, improvements)