Software development requires servant leaders
1–10 of 209 posts
Re: Software development requires servant leaders
#2In my experience it is rarely enough to just "lead" more thoughtfully, which seems to be what the author here is promoting. Software development does not just require servant leaders in the helping sense, but in the working sense. The best leaders in software and technical domains are also those who can write (either code or ideas) better than anyone else. They have the power to move the project forward on their own, and working with them lightens the effort for everyone. Those who also adopt the ideas in this essay do foster the sensation among those they lead that they were never led at all, and rather achieved their common objectives together.
Re: Software development requires servant leaders
#3This captures my philosophy on software leadership better than i could have explicated myself. I was hooked when he started to talk about when we come up with different names for a project because we are never satisfied with it
Re: Software development requires servant leaders
#4In my experience it is rarely enough to just "lead" more thoughtfully, which seems to be what the author here is promoting. Software development does not just require servant leaders in the helping sense, but in the working sense. The best leaders in software and technical domains are also those who can write (either code or ideas) better than anyone else. They have the power to move the project forward on their own,…
I don’t think these are exclusive. A technical lead should be able to write a proof of concept and support its evolution into a MVP by a team, fading in and out when required. I think the value of the article is in arguing that the ego typical of leaders has no place in engineering.
Re: Software development requires servant leaders
#5Man, the first part of the article hits close to home. Ik currently in a project where there's a combination of scope creep and inexperienced developers causing the work to take longer than expected. Business however is unwilling to move any deadlines.
> When the business side “wins”, the developers end up in a death march.
This is a pretty good way to describe what I feel like now.
Re: Software development requires servant leaders
#6In my experience it is rarely enough to just "lead" more thoughtfully, which seems to be what the author here is promoting. Software development does not just require servant leaders in the helping sense, but in the working sense. The best leaders in software and technical domains are also those who can write (either code or ideas) better than anyone else. They have the power to move the project forward on their own,…
It depends on what kind of leadership we talk about.
Technical leadership: such leaders are often called architects. Of course they need deep technical knowledge.
Project leadership: such leaders are often called project managers or product owners. They only need shallow technical knowledge and can mostly lean on their experts in their team.
Human managers: they deal with personal growth and employment. They need enough technical knowledge to make employment decisions but need not be great programmers.
In large companies these are usually different persons. In a startup the CTO does it all, so of course he must be very technically competent.
Re: Software development requires servant leaders
#7It's not just software that doesn't "square the very definition of a project ... with our real world experiences". The same happens on the business side. There's always the other side of the equation: how the system reacts to what you're trying to do.
Perhaps some component doesn't really gel the way you had hoped for. The same goes for business opportunities. Sometimes it just doesn't work out and it can be a real blow to the project. And sometimes the users just aren't there or don't appreciate what you've done.
Management generally has to be flexible, not just in software, but in a lot of divisions. Because ... unknowns ... that are discovered as you go.
Re: Software development requires servant leaders
#8In my experience it is rarely enough to just "lead" more thoughtfully, which seems to be what the author here is promoting. Software development does not just require servant leaders in the helping sense, but in the working sense. The best leaders in software and technical domains are also those who can write (either code or ideas) better than anyone else. They have the power to move the project forward on their own,…
It depends on what kind of leadership we talk about. Technical leadership: such leaders are often called architects. Of course they need deep technical knowledge. Project leadership: such leaders are often called project managers or product owners. They only need shallow technical knowledge and can mostly lean on their experts in their team. Human managers: they deal with personal growth and employment. They need eno…
I think that these are different persons leads may be one of the causes of a lot of the negative symptoms we're seeing in project management in our industry. If I compare the teams that I've been on, a lot of the frustration was due to the communication (or lack thereof) between the leadership roles that you've described. The best teams where were single people were responsible for all types of leadership - even if it was more than one person.
It does not always pay to specialize.
Re: Software development requires servant leaders
#9Many other types of leadership can work just as well depending on the team.
The biggest downside to servant leaders is, IME, they split their focus and are often not held accountable.
For example if you prioritize growth as a servant leader are you held responsible if your team has a higher than average turnover? Are you rewarded if you have a lower than average turnover?
Is that more important than project success to the business?
Is this clearly defined anywhere for your project?
Re: Software development requires servant leaders
#10Maybe. I think there’s all sorts of leaders and all sorts of ways and configurations projects can have.
IMO the most inspired software is the implementation of the vision of one person who had an artists/visionaries clear idea of what they want to create, who listens to input and brings in new ideas from others, but has absolute control over the decisions.
Servant leaders of software projects I’m guessing has the potential to lead to somewhat ordinary software.