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Ask HN: Books to read when you transform from SWE into SWE Management?

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Re: Ask HN: Books to read when you transform from SWE into SWE Management?

#21

Post by splittingTimes »

Aeolun wrote: post #19

There’s really only one thing you have to take away from ‘The Mythical Man Month’ and ‘Peopleware’ in my opinion (more people != more work), but they’re still valuable reads.

This.

DeMarco's Peopleware is a bit more hands on compared to the man month.

Re: Ask HN: Books to read when you transform from SWE into SWE Management?

#22

Post by pid-1 »

wiz21c wrote: post #16

The Prince by Machiavel.

I don't remember the exact wording, but "if you're going to do many evil things, do all of them at once" really has shaped how I organize myself when I need to screw people.

Non ironically I think that's a great book for anyone working in a company.

Re: Ask HN: Books to read when you transform from SWE into SWE Management?

#23

Post by mprovost »

One quick observation: you say that your new role focuses on Devops etc... That sounds like a tech lead to me. A manager focuses on their people, not a tech stack. One of the hardest parts of transitioning from an IC to a manager is letting go of control of technical decisions, and learning to trust your team. Of course you need to be able to set the general direction, but it's more about building a culture than it is about the exact implementation. If the team doesn't want to do devops, or testing, or write documentation, etc then it doesn't really matter which tech you choose. Getting people to work together and build consensus is the hard part.

Re: Ask HN: Books to read when you transform from SWE into SWE Management?

#24

Post by austincheney »

mprovost wrote: post #23

One quick observation: you say that your new role focuses on Devops etc... That sounds like a tech lead to me. A manager focuses on their people, not a tech stack. One of the hardest parts of transitioning from an IC to a manager is letting go of control of technical decisions, and learning to trust your team. Of course you need to be able to set the general direction, but it's more about building a culture than it i…

As a military officer I agree that trust is a huge amount of effective leadership. It’s something that is immediately visible when visiting a different team.

So what do you do, as a software manager, if you don’t trust your team? Do you set higher technical standards? Do you invest in training? Do you hold responsible for failure to deliver a certain level of quality?

Re: Ask HN: Books to read when you transform from SWE into SWE Management?

#25

Post by elmarschraml »

Second the recommendations for "an elegant puzzle" and "the manager's path".

Cant believe this one has not been mentioned yet: "Becoming an effective software engineering manager" by James Stanier (https://pragprog.com/titles/jsengman/become-an-effective-sof...) - a good book, and very specific for exactly your situation.

Would also like to mention my own podcast "Ask an engineering manager" - more focused on SWEs, but also has some episodes about how to be an Eng Mgr, e.g. https://askanengineeringmanager.libsyn.com/017-typical-mista...

Re: Ask HN: Books to read when you transform from SWE into SWE Management?

#26

Post by taffronaut »

mro_name wrote: post #9

"Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In" by Roger Fisher and William Ury https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Getting_to_Yes:_Negotiating_Ag...

Books or writing on negotiation generally and appreciating that when it comes to management, negotiation is everywhere.

Re: Ask HN: Books to read when you transform from SWE into SWE Management?

#27

Post by rjzzleep »

cjcenizal wrote: post #15

I’ve just made this transition myself! Congratulations! I have a very short list of reading recommendations here: https://www.cenizal.com/reading/ In addition to the blog links on that page, I found these books to be the most useful: High Output Management, by Andy Grove. My number one recommendation for anyone interested in managing people, particularly engineers. This book presents methods and processes for helping…

High Output Management always gets recommended. How did his management work out for Intel?

Re: Ask HN: Books to read when you transform from SWE into SWE Management?

#28

Post by jstanier »

elmarschraml wrote: post #25

Second the recommendations for "an elegant puzzle" and "the manager's path". Cant believe this one has not been mentioned yet: "Becoming an effective software engineering manager" by James Stanier ( https://pragprog.com/titles/jsengman/become-an-effective-sof... ) - a good book, and very specific for exactly your situation. Would also like to mention my own podcast "Ask an engineering manager" - more focused on SWEs,…

Thanks for mentioning my book. Indeed, it's written exactly with that moment of time in mind: the "OK, so I want to do this. But how?"
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