Engineering management lessons (2014)

Having just spent a couple weeks on a pretty hard engineering problem, after having done more "architecture" stuff for quite a while, I would definitely add one thing to the Do's: * Protect your engineers' attention. As a manager you are the primary firewall between the world of distraction and the world of getting shit done. Most places these days have institutionalized some amount of distraction -- the various recurring "ceremonies" -- but anything beyond that, it's essential that the…

I think the don't section is far too specific and short. I also think you can learn a lot more from failure than success, but I might be biased there. My management experience is in large bureaucracies. Here are my top ways to fail as a technical manager: 1. You don't understand what the people who work for you do well enough to know good work from bad work. This has all sorts of bad ramifications. You can't be a…

> Fire bullies and underperformers. Bullies, yes. Underperformers, not immediately without communicating before, trying to understand the reasons, and trying to fix them.

> Most people won’t easily share their emotions. Have frequent informal conversations, and tease out everything that might be wrong. Then fix it if you can. This. I've worked with many software organizations who jump to conclusions about their engineers and their reaction about poor performance is usually "we need to fire him/her" or "I don't think I have the right dev team". I always have to ask "When was the last time you asked that person what they really…