Ask HN: What makes a good IT Manager?

#1

Post by perlsys » Thu, Jul 08, 2010, 8:53 PM UTC

At works I've had this debate with some of my colleagues, what makes an IT manager good?

Basically the debate boils down to two camps (1) a few (proabably just me) favoring an IT Manager with strong strong techical knowledge, and (2) the other camps that downplays the importance of technical knowledge they argue that it is not required, for an IT manager to have strong technical knowledge, and that People, communication and project management skills are far more important

I notice that many if not most of the IT manager where I work have modest or little technical skills. They may know what a SQL Server or a router is, but I would not debate with them the merits of Dynamic language over statically typed languages, Database design , Servers management , UML or whatever else that you may consider IT domain knowledge

So What makes a good IT Manager?

Re: Ask HN: What makes a good IT Manager?

#2

Post by otoburb » Thu, Jul 08, 2010, 9:00 PM UTC

Can't you have two types of "good" IT managers? I know both types of great IT managers. If you forced me to choose from the two camps, I'd rather pick a manager with the better people, communication and organizational skills and lack of technical knowledge.

Somebody with the technical skills and a deficiency of people, communication and organizational skills will do more damage to the group than a manager with the inverse skill set.

Great managers from camp (1) are probably more effective, but seem to be harder to come by because they need to possess two sets of skills, rather than one.

Re: Ask HN: What makes a good IT Manager?

#3

Post by perlsys » Thu, Jul 08, 2010, 9:42 PM UTC

otoburb wrote: post #2

Can't you have two types of "good" IT managers? I know both types of great IT managers. If you forced me to choose from the two camps, I'd rather pick a manager with the better people, communication and organizational skills and lack of technical knowledge. Somebody with the technical skills and a deficiency of people, communication and organizational skills will do more damage to the group than a manager with the in…

You assumed that people from camp (1) may have deficient people skills, and its fair to assume the extremes in this debate.

But what about the extreme of camp (2) isnt that just as bad, wouldnt a manager with deficient technical knowledge make ur life hell!!!

So if we exclude the extremes would u still pick camp (2) ???

Re: Ask HN: What makes a good IT Manager?

#4

Post by yanilkr » Thu, Jul 08, 2010, 9:47 PM UTC

The title of IT manager is not relevant any more. A strong IT team with someone filling a role of "facilitator"(Not Manager) can get a lot more done than a sole IT manager taking all the decisions.