Found this article playing around on Bloglines (I finally upgraded from myYahoo because Bloglines has better search function - “search my subscriptions”) from Joel On Software on spec writing. The nugget was I finally found out the exact origin and story behind how “program managers” came to be

The idea of master/slave programming was discredited, but Microsoft still had these people called program managers bouncing around. A smart man named Jabe Blumenthal basically reinvented the position of program manager. Henceforth, the program manager would own the design and the spec for products.

Since then, program managers at Microsoft gather requirements, figure out what the code is supposed to do, and write the specs. There are usually about 5 programmers for every program manager; these programmers are responsible for implementing in code what the program manager has implemented in the form of a spec. A program manager also needs to coordinate marketing, documentation, testing, localization, and all the other annoying details that programmers shouldn’t spend time on. Finally, program managers at Microsoft are supposed to have the “big picture” of the company in mind, while programmers are free to concentrate on getting their bits of code exactly right.

Here in the Valley, we call Program Managers, Product Managers although the lines are not so clear cut. Anyways, good to know who is responsible for my daily travails :)