Become an Effective Software Engineering Manager

How to Be the Leader Your Development Team Needs

by James Stanier

Software startups make global headlines every day. As technology companies succeed and grow, so do their engineering departments. In your career, you’ll may suddenly get the opportunity to lead teams: to become a manager. But this is often uncharted territory. How do you decide whether this career move is right for you? And if you do, what do you need to learn to succeed? Where do you start? How do you know that you’re doing it right? What does “it” even mean? And isn’t management a dirty word? This book will share the secrets you need to know to manage engineers successfully.

Going from engineer to manager doesn’t have to be intimidating. Engineers can be managers, and fantastic ones at that. Cast aside the rhetoric and focus on practical, hands-on techniques and tools. You’ll become an effective and supportive team leader that your staff will look up to.

Start with your transition to being a manager and see how that compares to being an engineer. Learn how to better organize information, feel productive, and delegate, but not micromanage. Discover how to manage your own boss, hire and fire, do performance and salary reviews, and build a great team. You’ll also learn the psychology: how to ship while keeping staff happy, coach and mentor, deal with deadline pressure, handle sensitive information, and navigate workplace politics.

Consider your whole department. How can you work with other teams to ensure best practice? How do you help form guilds and committees and communicate effectively? How can you create career tracks for individual contributors and managers? How can you support flexible and remote working? How can you improve diversity in the industry through your own actions? This book will show you how.

Great managers can make the world a better place. Join us.

• Errata, typos, suggestions

Releases:

• P2.0 2021/03/31
• P1.0 2020/05/27
• B5.0 2020/05/14
• B4.0 2020/04/07

• Introduction
• Getting Oriented
  • A New Adventure excerpt
    • Beginning Your First Week
    • Creating a Snapshot
    • Making an Action List
    • And Relax…
  • Manage Yourself First
    • Let’s Get Organized!
    • How to Categorize Your Activities to Feel Productive
    • How to Measure Your Output as a Manager
    • OK, I’m Ready!
• Working with Individuals
  • Interfacing with Humans
    • How to Communicate Well
    • Delegation
    • Working with Your Manager
    • Onward!
  • One-to-Ones
    • Week In, Week Out
    • How to Prepare for One-to-Ones
    • Contracting: Your First One-to-Ones
    • What to Talk About and How to Do It
    • How to Take Notes and Assign Actions
    • Remember: You Are Not a Therapist
    • OK, What’s Next?
  • The Right Job for the Person
    • What Motivates People?
    • The Zone of Proximal Development
    • The Cathedral and the Bazaar
    • A Review Before Reviews
  • The Most Wonderful Time of the Year excerpt
    • Myth Busting
    • How to Prepare for Performance Reviews
    • What to Do on the Day
    • How to Talk About Money
    • Where to Next?
  • Join Us! excerpt
    • Picking Who to Hire
    • Writing Great Job Descriptions
    • Setting Up an Interview Process
    • From Hiring To…
  • Game Over
    • People Leaving Is Normal
    • When Staff Leave
    • Fighting the Good Fight
    • Making Staff Leave
    • Enough Goodbyes Already!
  • How to Win Friends and Influence People
    • Going Beyond Your Team
    • Building Your Network
    • Giving Back
    • Time to Take It Up a Level
• The Bigger Picture
  • Humans Are Hard
    • Scrutiny and Judgment
    • Wobble
    • The Whip and the Carrot
    • Mount Stupid
    • It Isn’t Just Humans…
  • Projects Are Hard
    • The Eye of Sauron
    • Victims of Your Own Success
    • Scope, Resources, and Time
    • And Relax…
  • The Information Stock Exchange
    • Spies and Gatekeepers
    • How to Share Just Enough Information
    • Workplace Politics
    • It’s Time to Decompress
  • Letting Go of Control
    • Transcending Tasks
    • Escaping the False Productivity Trap
    • What You Do Outside of Work Matters
    • Letting Go…of This Chapter
  • Good Housekeeping
    • Communication Dictates Software Design
    • Breaking Silos with Guilds
    • Encouraging a Culture of Talks
    • Turning Problems into Learning Opportunities
    • Tools to Solve Common Problems
    • Now Let’s Organize Our Careers
  • Dual Ladders
    • Individual Contributor Track
    • Management Track
    • Creating a Progression Framework
    • Career Progression Troubleshooting
    • Time to Tackle the Big Issues
  • The Modern Workplace
    • Diversity and Inclusion
    • The Shift Toward Remote Working
    • Work-Life Balance
    • Notes on Culture
    • To the Land of Unicorns
  • Startups
    • Software Is Eating the World
    • Opportunities for Managers
    • Why Management at Startups Is Critical
    • What Does Your Future Hold?
  • The Crystal Ball
    • Life, the Universe, and Everything in Between
    • Your Vision
    • Your Plan
    • Performing the Exercise with Your Staff
    • That’s All Folks!