Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: Switching from developer to project manager. What to keep in mind?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

91–100 of 109 posts

Re: Ask HN: Switching from developer to project manager. What to keep in mind?

#91

Post by jurgenwerk »

ryanmarsh wrote: post #90

1. Don't take anything personally. 2. Always remain calm and patient. 3. When people make bad decisions against your strong advice don't feel the need to make their bad decisions a success. 4. Don't own the failure of people who don't understand software development. You'll always be doing the best you can with what you're given. 5. You'll be remembered for your grace and professionalism. 6. Never tell a lie. Never g…

Excelent list. Can you describe the "Never use the word should" a bit more in depth and give some examples?

Re: Ask HN: Switching from developer to project manager. What to keep in mind?

#92

Post by cpeterso »

cerrelio wrote: post #75

These are based off my current experience in transitioning to a management role. I'm still a dev, but my manager is "testing me out" for a management role. - Keep current on technologies, what your team uses and wants to use, and also technologies that might be useful. - Know your developers' strengths and weakness, both technical and interpersonal. - Time management. (Can't stress this enough). - Ask lots of thought…

A corollary of managing passive-aggressive team members is to not hide bad project news from upset management. A project in trouble is unlikely to get back on track on its own. Management wants to help but needs to be able to trust your status reports.

Likewise, your job is to ship the project and you need your dev team's trust to do that, so you should look for new solutions and risk mitigations when raising project problems to management, not pointing blame or throwing people under the bus.

Re: Ask HN: Switching from developer to project manager. What to keep in mind?

#93

Post by cpeterso »

bigethan wrote: post #5

Without shipped features or a trail of closed tickets to point at, what will be your measure of career success? In my experience making a similar move, I initially made my gauge of success too dependent on others. I had to sit and think to create new metrics and measurements outside of what was currently done in order to show my success.

That is a great point. A project manager's quarterly goals, for examples, will be rather meta compared top a developer's. A project manager's success shouldn't be a byproduct of the dev team's work. At the end of the day, you don't have the authority to make developers do anything and you can't take credit for their work. But you should still be able to succeed in your project management job even if the developers don't ship on time.

Re: Ask HN: Switching from developer to project manager. What to keep in mind?

#94

Post by cpeterso »

usgroup wrote: post #13

Out of interest, why are you switching to project management if you wouldn't mind me asking?

I had always been interested in the software development lifecycle. I eventually made the switch from dev to program/project management, in part, because I had worked on too many projects at different companies that failed to ship. I wanted to be part of the solution.

Re: Ask HN: Switching from developer to project manager. What to keep in mind?

#95

Post by draw_down »

Pretty much every PM I'm ever worked with kept a short-staffed team, picked ship dates the team was unlikely to hit, then as the date neared, started scrounging around for developers outside the team to fix all their shitty bugs and MacGyver their product/feature into a shippable state. Then after they ship, of course all credit and promotions went to the original team.

Be nice if you didn't pull that shit.

Re: Ask HN: Switching from developer to project manager. What to keep in mind?

#96

Post by dpark »

erikb wrote: post #58
dpark wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> However I believe it is not a good idea to consider yourself a peer. But PMs are peers. PM is not a position of authority. If you are acting as a PM and try to present yourself as if you have the authority to override dev decisions or demand that they do certain things, it might work, or you might breed resentment and hurt your interactions as well as the general team dynamic. A PM should treat devs as peers and wo…

I think the difference here is between having responsibility vs acting like the guy with the crown. A manager should respect his engineers and shouldn't tell everybody that the engineers are "his guys" like he owns some slaves. But in the end he's the one who should be allowed to override an engineer's decision on whether to work on task A or task B, when to pull extra hours and when it's okay to slack a little. And…

> But in the end he's the one who should be allowed to override an engineer's decision on ... when to pull extra hours

No way. I can agree that often the PM has the ability to set task priorities (not always, devs can push back and the devs' people managers will have the final say), but no way does a PM have the authority to decide that a dev should be working extra hours. Absolutely not. That is a pure people management decision (and one that should almost always be decided no).

Re: Ask HN: Switching from developer to project manager. What to keep in mind?

#98

Post by arsenide »

I'm "only" a developer, but clear, concise communication from PMs is the most important thing for me in my current position. Think about yourself as a developer: what do you want from PMs? Personally, I like clear communication and quick resolution regarding the issues I have (that can be solved by PM) in my day-to-day workflow. When I am working on something and hit a road block requiring PM input, the most important thing for me is to get feedback as soon as possible so I can continue on what I am doing.

Communication seems to be key. Ensure you understand and that you are understood.

Post reply on HN