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

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

#21

Post by unclebucknasty »

Make sure the expectations of the role in your environment are clear and that the position adds value vs. being just a thin veneer over other roles.

I've seen many environments which have project managers that aren't needed. Very capable people are then relegated to noting status updates and pressuring the team to meet deadlines. That way lies misery for all.

Agile has done away with a lot of these positions, however, environments that are highly complex with long term activity and/or many stakeholders to coordinate may still warrant the role.

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

#23

Post by Sharma »

Most Important: Be humble.

You know how to program and do the technical design, but do not do that anymore.

Delegate the development/technical tasks to your tech lead/Sr Developer. Help/Suggest them if they are overloaded or lagging behind but don't impose your technical strategies. Delegate and delegate!

Keep everyone involved. Do not hide any information from team. Invite Sr Dev/QA/Tech leads to the meetings with clients(selectively).

Give importance to every team member. Involve them in decision making.

Finally, do all of the above based on the situations. Do not do everything all the time.

So...Manage all of this to become a good Manager!

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

#24

Post by mabbo »

orbz wrote: post #20

Have spent about 5 years in Program/Project Management, and 10 in Developer Lead roles, and the big thing I'd have to say about the PM world is that just because it has Management in the title doesn't mean you're a people manager. You're the developers' peer, and will have to do a good chunk of work convincing them that the work you think is important, is in fact important. Everyone has gut feelings on what the proje…

> the title doesn't mean you're a people manager. You're the developers' peer

This, 1000 times. The Project Manager role is one of convincing others, helping organize them, and smoothing out relationships with other teams/organizations. If you try to act like an authority figure, the devs working with you wind up in an "Office Space" style "I have 8 bosses" problem.

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

#25

Post by dmourati »

Prepare to be largely ignored and avoided. I know the PMs I work with mean well but I find it hard to take them seriously or give them much credit when their work product is mostly spreadsheets, gant charts, and scheduling meetings.

Product managers, on the other hand, deal with what gets in front of the customer, why, and when. I have more inclination to work with them.

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

#26

Post by giis »

If there is one thing I say "Don't _act_ like being nice to fellow team-members & Don't make fake urgency for specific task."

Most annoying thing : I can handle with some straight forward guys but not someone who fake like caring about you and your career, while actually fooling you. And remember those 'urgent' task needs to completed in late nights or weekends and no one cares about it for months, stop pushing people just because you possess some-kind of authority. Be transparent.

All the best!

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

#27

Post by rodolphoarruda »

jives wrote: post #14

Many developers try to keep track of everything in their head. That won't work as a PM. Your time will usually be much more fractured than it was a dev, as you track multiple ongoing projects at various levels of detail. If you try to keep everything in your head, you will most likely start dropping balls, and if there's anyone who shouldn't drop balls, it's a PM. So, my advice: make lists and track the status of eve…

I've spent 2016 with an average of 10 to 15 active projects I had to manage. Each one of them had an average of 5 stakeholders performing around 2 or 3 tasks per week I had to manage. That alone, using simple math, gave me 150 active tasks per week that I should track. You can easily double or triple that number if you had tasks created to yourself before (preparation) and after (follow-ups) each task due date. On top of those, you still have to manage admin/desk work to the company you work for (timesheets, expense reports review and approvals, contract reviews etc.).

More than task lists you need a method to support them. And that is something you can build based on corporate policy and culture (not following any particular order). Inbox Zero combined with a task oriented PMS like Basecamp has worked for me so far.

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

#29

Post by fma »

I'm not a PM, but I have a PM that I greatly respect.

My take away from him is be organized. If you have to oversee a lot of projects, lots of schedules, lots of people, you can't keep track of it all. Outlook, Onenote...find some good tools and use it well. Follow up promptly - you may need to deal with other teams a lot, and other teams won't put you on a top priority.

As a follow up as 'other teams won't put you on a top priority'...don't put other teams on a top priority :). Learn to say no when you have to. But also learn to say yes when you can. Your team may need assistance down the road and you want to cash in those chips.

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

#30

Post by codebeaker »

Interestingly topical I shared this tweet [0] a day or two ago, repeated here to save you a click. Having switched from dev to CTO (which is like PM for every product in your company, when you're small) it resonated with me. I personally think it's my job to "shield" the team from any/all external distractions.

    Dev productivity killers:
     * Notifications
     * Meetings
     * Emails
     * Interruptions
     Great managers block these. Bad managers cause them.
Otherwise, I can only agree with the advice about structure, and discipline. I'm currently shopping around for something like https://github.com/danger/danger to help me do my job better by policing Trello automatically - we've had great experiences using this for Capistrano's pull requests and I'd love to try this approach on Trello to police the rules we agreed to, but don't necessarily always follow. That'd probably save me double digit hours each week.

[0]: https://twitter.com/_ericelliott/status/814082788378804224

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