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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?

#81

Post by _y5hn »

andi999 wrote: post #30
x87678r wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Maybe it is different in Software engineering than in Hardware, but if you have a team developing hardware and they encounter a problem they cannot solve they have to turn to their manager. So the manager also gets technical crap/difficulties to solve. The 5% he cannot solve goes one level higher, so basically the higher you get, the more distille/purerd crap you get.

Software is more like turd production, than bridge building!

Re: What is expected of a engineering manager?

#83

Post by _y5hn »

systemvoltage wrote: post #56
ed312 wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a really tricky thing to nail down as an EM. My first eng leadership role I was promoted out of the team. Everyone already knew I had what it took (I was one of the core group pushing hard to get the product out the door) so "engineering respect" came naturally. Fast forward to being hired as an EM - I realized I had to earn this all over again AND I couldn't do it just be being another peer in the trenches.…

Curious how you define a team’s success?

Everyone pulling in same direction and getting good traction.

Re: What is expected of a engineering manager?

#84

Post by _y5hn »

sidlls wrote: post #34
annexrichmond wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've had EMs who who really well versed in the team's technical work, because they were an IC on the team, and the complete opposite: EM was external hire One downside of relevant coding experience is that the EM will get involved in more and more little technical details, which bleeds into micromanagement territory.

Yep, that's what I'm experiencing. There isn't a requirements analysis or design review where he doesn't insert himself into the low-level details, right down to class/data specifications and even lower. Instead of bringing his knowledge of how our stuff has to integrate with other teams' work to inform the design, he acts more like an IC colleague participating in its construction. Then, when engineers come to desig…

Tell him to do the work if he's interested in all the details.

Re: What is expected of a engineering manager?

#85

Post by markwaldron »

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?

An Elegant Puzzle: Systems of Engineering Management by Wil Laron is one of my favorites

Re: What is expected of a engineering manager?

#87

Post by 29athrowaway »

ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #51
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. This is especially relevant, these days, when HR departments are basically taking an actively adversarial role towards employees. I used to get crap from HR, if I chose to resolve personnel issues without involving them. The problem was, they had only two speeds: Do Nothing, or KILL ALL THE BABIES. Nothing in between; despite their constant harping about how they were "on our side." Their job was to keep…

HR job is to prevent unions or any form of collective bargaining and protect the company from litigation.

Susan Fowler's story can give you an idea of how HR works... https://www.susanjfowler.com/blog/2017/2/19/reflecting-on-on...

Re: What is expected of a engineering manager?

#88

Post by wolfgang000 »

kemiller2002 wrote: post #6
meagher wrote: post #2

One thing missing from my recent engineering managers is lack of relevant coding experience. You don't need to be an great engineer to be a good manager, but it definitely helps when your manager knows enough about the battles fought in the trenches and can offer actual feedback/support instead of nodding for 30m, then going to another 1:1.

At my last job I had an interesting (nice) experience. My boss wasn't an engineer, he was a project manager, but that didn't hinder him. I think what made him successful was that he cared. He'd say over and over, "I'm not a developer, I need help understanding." We would sit in a meeting and walk through problems. He was very calm and patient and acted genuinely interested in what the problem was. He would ask questi…

My current and former manager are exactly like this, except that both of them do know SQL, really great guys that try their best to help guide the project.

As a little anecdote, my first boss was a technical manager with many years of experience in programming but unfortunately not very good managerial skills. The biggest problem was that he had a clear image of the big picture but when we try to explain to him that "No, we can't do X because Y" then he said, "what are you talking about? Of course, we can It's a simple queue/query/function call", and he would not listen until we show and explain him the code or he tried to do it himself.

It's definitely better to have an empathic and cooperative manager even if he or she lags the technical knowledge

Re: What is expected of a engineering manager?

#89

Post by ertemplin »

strig wrote: post #53
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…

> configuration galley What does this mean?

My interpretation of this is a junior SDE position where you mostly update system configuration parameters all day instead of writing code or designing systems. People in these positions still get paid SDE salaries but aren't gaining any useful software development experience.

Re: What is expected of a engineering manager?

#90

Post by bpicolo »

yalogin wrote: post #86

Is the engineering manager expect to proactively find work for their team? Are they responsible to keep the work pipeline full for the next upcoming cycles?

This is a product/project management responsibility, and in some organizations or teams some or all of this can fall on the engineering manager side. Doing a lot of both at the same time is typically a crummy gig, as you don't have time to do both successfully for a right-sized team (you'll be either a bad manager, a bad product manager, or mediocre at both), Uou'll either be overworked or feel bad at your gig all the time.

Helping the team proactively scope and prioritize technical debt work, as opposed to product work, is almost always a critical function of managers.

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