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What is expected of a engineering manager?

blog.rlmflores.me

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Re: What is expected of a engineering manager?

#71

Post by Rapzid »

spaetzleesser wrote: post #9

One thing I noticed is that a lot of managers create an environment they would not want to work in themselves. A good manager should not just pass on orders from above and report back but try to shape the work environment so their reports can work well. A lot of managers in my company only ask “when” but never “how” or “why”. It doesn’t help to constantly remind people of deadlines without listening to and implementi…

The whole team needs to work together to create an environment that incentivizes the desired behaviors while being an enjoyable experience.

Setting in place and maintaining a system like that is hard. Telling people what to do is easy.

Re: What is expected of a engineering manager?

#72

Post by LeifCarrotson »

Timberwolf wrote: post #14

I think the article misses what I think is a vitally important part of the job: being a crap shield. A lot of the work of an EM is wading into the slurry pit with a shovel so your team are free to get the job done: bashing your head against InfoSec teams stuck in the '80s so the CI/CD toolchain can deploy to production, negotiating freedom with a CTO who wants to specify everything to the level of individual data str…

Absolutely! A manager can either be an umbrella to shelter under, or they can be a shit funnel.

Great work gets done when you can give your engineers a hard problem (or a long list of easy problems) and let them put their nose to the grindstone to get it done, while deflecting the rabble of inane ideas for new features, shifting deadlines, office politics, customer/supplier relations, etc. etc. etc. If a manager sidesteps all those, and passes them to the engineer, there will be have no time or energy for the actual work. If they are a single point of contact where an engineer can pull in a prioritized task list and push out questions and results, that's an ideal environment to get things done.

Unfortunately, other managers which interact with these EMs can sometimes have a hard time telling the former from the latter, and have a hard time evaluating the quality of the work/difficulty of the problems being solved, so the only visible difference is the happiness of the engineering team and the accomplishments that were made.

Re: What is expected of a engineering manager?

#73

Post by ilaksh »

Personally I would prefer that the manager is someone who is an active engineer on the project. And I know that is challenging and won't work in a lot of organizations.

But before you dismiss the idea, look at open source projects like Linux, the D programming language, or Nim.

Re: What is expected of a engineering manager?

#74

Post by quercusa »

the_arun wrote: post #52

Few things I learnt so far: 1. Managers need to be human & kind. 2. Shielding their team from crap (as someone mentioned already) 3. Don't pitch one team member vs another - this is toxic. Instead nurture their strength. Our competitors are outside the team, not inside 4. Cheer lead/Sponsor for the team outside. Genuinely back your team. 5. Always expect your team members are smarter than you - give them that trust.…

> 4. Cheer lead/Sponsor for the team outside. Genuinely back your team.

You don't have to (and shouldn't) tell them you are doing this - word will get back to them.

Re: What is expected of a engineering manager?

#75

Post by laudable-logic »

pkaler wrote: post #42

I recommend all of the books referenced in the original post. They are all very good. But the expectation of an engineering manager is fairly simple: Do whatever it takes. Way back in February or March, when we were still working from the office, I walked to the drug store on the corner and got Lysol wipes and hand sanitizer for everyone. Because, do whatever it takes.

I once had a report who demanded, snarkily, all the things be listed on the whiteboard (as opposed to just getting them in Jira) and the meeting was set for the next day...

Knowing the team was one of those that is constantly using nearly-depleted markers and hating life, I thought to check. Sure enough... all empty, nothing to replace them with.

I thought to just let said report arrive at next day's meeting, ready to whiteboard it up only to look woefully unprepared, but I waited. I waited until about an hour before the meeting to see if they might have clued-in and sorted the problem for themselves...

An hour later I returned from a slushy 2km walk, soaked, with a box of markers that I just placed in the drawer, unbeknownst to all.

Re: What is expected of a engineering manager?

#76

Post by nogabebop23 »

Timberwolf wrote: post #14

I think the article misses what I think is a vitally important part of the job: being a crap shield. A lot of the work of an EM is wading into the slurry pit with a shovel so your team are free to get the job done: bashing your head against InfoSec teams stuck in the '80s so the CI/CD toolchain can deploy to production, negotiating freedom with a CTO who wants to specify everything to the level of individual data str…

Additions:

* the crap shield is made of Gor-tex so you need to protect the team but also expunge the toxins that build up within. Not all crap is generated outside of the team but you need to get ride of it.

* the crap shield is transparent so the team can see what's happening outside without being covered in it

* the crap shield is retractable so you can let some into the team's atmosphere. Not enough to cause harm, but keep them grounded in the imperfect world in which their work will live.

* the crap shield has a window lock, and you the manager are in control of it. This is for the same reason the driver of a car can lock the windows in the back seat to stop the kids from opening them when you're in the car wash.

Re: What is expected of a engineering manager?

#77

Post by nogabebop23 »

x87678r wrote: post #19
Timberwolf wrote: post #14

I think the article misses what I think is a vitally important part of the job: being a crap shield. A lot of the work of an EM is wading into the slurry pit with a shovel so your team are free to get the job done: bashing your head against InfoSec teams stuck in the '80s so the CI/CD toolchain can deploy to production, negotiating freedom with a CTO who wants to specify everything to the level of individual data str…

I used to think that then I burnt out. When the manager does nothing but the crap, the manager is going to leave. The proper way is to distribute the crap evenly.

>> The proper way is to distribute the crap evenly.

This is true of "crap work" (i.e. stupid bugs, wading through documentation) but not of the crap external to the team. Your job as the manager is to deal with it all. You can either work to slow it's generation or suck it down, but it's all on you.

Re: What is expected of a engineering manager?

#78

Post by pkaler »

angrais wrote: post #65
pkaler wrote: post #42

I recommend all of the books referenced in the original post. They are all very good. But the expectation of an engineering manager is fairly simple: Do whatever it takes. Way back in February or March, when we were still working from the office, I walked to the drug store on the corner and got Lysol wipes and hand sanitizer for everyone. Because, do whatever it takes.

What other books would you recommend regarding management of SWEs?

I would recommend that you read a book a week, every week, for the rest of your life. :)

Just start with the ones in the article and Amazon/Kindle will get good at recommending books.

Here's some books recently read on my Kindle:

  - No Rules Rules
  - Never Split The Difference
  - The Manager's Path
  - The Almanack of Naval Ravikant
  - Ultralearning
  - The Hard Thing About Hard Things
  - What You Do is Who You Are
  - User Story Mapping
  - Inspired
  - The Lean Product Playbook
  - Competing Against Luck
  - Domain Driven Design
  - Patterns of Enterprise Application Architecture
  - Data-Driven Marketing
  - Designing Data-Intensive Applications
  - Monetizing Innovation
  - Super Thinking
  - The Great Mental Models
  - Nonviolent Communication
  - High Growth Handbook
  - Powerful
  - Trillion Dollar Coach

Re: What is expected of a engineering manager?

#79

Post by Maascamp »

Timberwolf wrote: post #14

I think the article misses what I think is a vitally important part of the job: being a crap shield. A lot of the work of an EM is wading into the slurry pit with a shovel so your team are free to get the job done: bashing your head against InfoSec teams stuck in the '80s so the CI/CD toolchain can deploy to production, negotiating freedom with a CTO who wants to specify everything to the level of individual data str…

I wouldn't call that being a crap shield. I'd call that executing on the non-technical aspects of your team's strategy.

When teams don't see (and/or frame) those things as key part of achieving their goals the results aren't gonna be great for anyone.

Re: What is expected of a engineering manager?

#80

Post by Anka33 »

Timberwolf wrote: post #14

I think the article misses what I think is a vitally important part of the job: being a crap shield. A lot of the work of an EM is wading into the slurry pit with a shovel so your team are free to get the job done: bashing your head against InfoSec teams stuck in the '80s so the CI/CD toolchain can deploy to production, negotiating freedom with a CTO who wants to specify everything to the level of individual data str…

"but can't they just use Waterfall?"

EVERY... FUCKING... TIME!

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