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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?

#61

Post by Jtsummers »

jlintz wrote: post #58
kqr wrote: post #46

If you read nothing else, read Edwards Deming. He clearly outlines what the management philosophy of modern creative jobs must be like: - Focus on what matters. - An organisation needs an aim, a meaningful goal, that's not just "do what we have always done except better". - Don't invest in shiny things because they are shiny – investments basically cost you the interest rate on a loan, rain or shine, even on Sundays.…

What books of his would you recommend?

Out of the Crisis is the one I've read and would recommend. Written in the 1980s, but most of it still applies today.

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

#62

Post by DanielBMarkham »

I'll take a shot, assuming that you are asking how to manage a technology team, not how to understand technology at a wider scale. You need both tech leadership and end-to-end/shallow-deep abilities. But the tech side is a different question entirely. Looks like some other folks have provided answers so I won't go there. (The tech side is a lot to go into in a thread, and would include some kind of conversation figuring out where you are technically. "I'm a SWE" doesn't begin to cover it.)

Without any thought at all:

- One Minute Manager

- Debugging the development process

- The Culture Code

- The Five Dysfunctions of a Team

- Difficult Conversations

Take some negotiation and interviewing hands-on courses.

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

#63

Post by Jtsummers »

twox2 wrote: post #60

"The Phoenix Project"

IMHO, this book is better read after at least reading Goldratt's The Goal. It's a sort of spiritual sequel. His Critical Chain is also worth reading before or after The Phoenix Project as it has a more direct connection.

The Goal, as written, is about manufacturing processes and a lot of people have trouble seeing past that domain when reading it. That is, they fail to generalize, or understand how to generalize, the ideas of Theory of Constraints. Critical Chain takes, essentially, the same Theory of Constraints and applies it to project management, versus production management. The Phoenix Project continues that sort of explicit extension by moving from general project management to IT systems management.

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

#64

Post by mprovost »

austincheney wrote: post #24
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?

It's not really about the manager trusting the team, it's the other way around, gaining the trust of your reports. If you don't trust your team to achieve their goals, then yes you do have a problem and you can address that in all kinds of ways. But by default you should trust the team. On the other hand, you don't deserve your team's trust until you've earned it.

From the military side you might be familiar with Auftragstaktik [0]. Basically, you set the goal and a timeframe and let the team figure out how to achieve it. You have to connect their work to some kind of success metric. Otherwise you're just saying something like "we have to implement Devops", as a goal in itself, not connected to anything else.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mission-type_tactics

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

#65

Post by zweiasakura »

brianmcc wrote: post #5

I recommend "Managing Humans" by Michael Lopp aka "Rands". https://randsinrepose.com/ It's a bit tongue in cheek rather than "management theory" but no less worthwhile for it.

I agree on Rands In Repose. The articles helped me pivot my priorities from shipping code to helping my team ship code. Here's a gist of the articles i found the most helpful: https://gist.github.com/samarkamat/f19a4c4596550429eae1b95cb...

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

#66

Post by svmanager »

We write https://staysaasy.com which includes various insights we think the existing literature doesn’t cover.

Some examples: https://staysaasy.com/communication/2021/10/30/look.html https://staysaasy.com/management/2021/07/17/Less-Divisive.ht... https://staysaasy.com/management/2021/06/26/check-on-your-te...

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

#68

Post by intellectronica »

- Power: Why Some People Have It and Others Don't by Jeffrey Pfeffer

- What Got You Here Won't Get You There: How Successful People Become Even More Successful by Marshall Goldsmith

These two books are not specifically on the topic of becoming an engineering manager but cover the important aspects of how to work effectively as a leader in organizations. Turns out that's very important too.

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

#69

Post by gregdoesit »

bsenftner wrote: post #31

I recommend you start an MBA program at night. There is no single book, there is no single topic, you need a broad range of new perspectives to be a truly effective manager.

Which MBA program covers engineering management specifically? I have a close friend who completed an MBA at Harvard and that program did not cover anything related to the type of people management engineering managers do. When my friend became a manager, had to learn all this on the go and from peers / managers and some of the resources linked in this thread.

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

#70

Post by cutenewt »

strife25 wrote: post #32

Everyone recommends The Manager's Path, but I don't think it's a good book to explain HOW to become a manager. The book's goal is to explain the career path of a manager from tech lead to CTO. My #1 recommendation these days is "Become an Effective Software Engineering Manager" by Jamies Stanier. This book explains how to approach the work a manager is involved in and what you can expect from the day to day. Planning…

I second this. The Manager's Path is a terrible book.
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