Managing programmers is hard! Becoming a successful manager requires a drastic change of focus. There are expectations to consider before making a leap to the “dark side.”
The transition from programmer to manager is made particularly challenging by the dramatic difference between what made us successful as programmers and what it takes to successfully manage others. In addition, programmers are an interesting management challenge.
We tend to be free spirits, playful, curious, and (very) independent.
How can you ease the transition into management? What’s management really about? What will you give up?
Bio:
Ron Lichty wants to make software development better worldwide by advancing the practice of software development management. He has been alternating between consulting with and managing software development and product organizations for 25 years, almost all of those spent untangling the knots in software development and transforming chaos to clarity, the last 20 of those in the era of Agile. Originally a programmer, he earned several patents and wrote two popular programming books before being hired into his first management role by Apple Computer, which nurtured his managerial growth in both development and product management roles.
Principal and owner of Ron Lichty Consulting, Inc. (www.RonLichty.com), Ron has repeatedly been brought in as an acting CTO and interim vice president of engineering to solve development team challenges. He has trained teams in Scrum, transitioned teams from waterfall and iterative methodologies to agile, coached teams already using agile to make their software development "hum", and trained managers in managing software people and teams. In his continued search for effective best practices, Ron co-authors the Study of Product Team Performance (http://www.ronlichty.com/study.html).
Ron's most recent book is Managing the Unmanageable: Rules, Tools, and Insights for Managing Software People and Teams - http://www.ManagingTheUnmanageable.net. Published by Addison Wesley as both book and video training, it has been compared by reviewers to software development classics, The Mythical Man-Month and Peopleware.
During Ron's first three years at Charles Schwab, he led software development of the first investor tools on Schwab.com, playing a role in transforming the bricks-and-mortar discount brokerage into a premier name in online financial services. He was promoted to Schwab vice president while leading his CIO’s three-year technology initiative to migrate software development from any-language-goes to a single, cost-effective platform company-wide and nurturing Schwab's nascent efforts to leverage early Agile approaches. He has led products and development across a wide range of domains for companies of all sizes, from startups to the Fortune 500, including Fujitsu, Razorfish, Stanford, and Apple.
Ron co-chairs the Silicon Valley Engineering Leadership Community.
8. Software People Managers
• Only half have had a single day of
training in management of any kind
• Less than 5% had a day of
management training prior to managing
• Even fewer had a day of training
specific to managing software people
10. Software People Managers
• Isn’t it odd...
– how long we expect programmers to have
studied the art of programming
– how little we expect managers to have
studied the art of managing?
11. Manager Training with Impact
• Managers and the Law
• Situational Leadership
• Reflective Listening
12. Manager Training with Impact
• Managers and the Law
• Situational Leadership
• Reflective Listening
• Managing Software People and Teams
(live classes, & now LiveLessons video)
13. Manager Training with Impact
• Managers and the Law
• Situational Leadership
• Reflective Listening
• Managing Software People and Teams
(live classes, & now LiveLessons video)
• The Agile Manager
17. Success as a Manager
• Welcome interruptions
• Focus on enabling others
• Delegate to others what you could do better
• People skills, coaching skills, and empathy
• Too few role models
• Dramatically more managing up and out
21. How we came to write:
* Addison Wesley published October 2012
*
Mentoring
22. How we came to write:
* Addison Wesley published October 2012
*
Co-mentoring
23. Easing the Transition
• Training
• Books
• Mentors
• Ask other managers
– most important lessons
– mistakes they made, and how they solved them
– surprises, both good and bad
– sources of strength and support
24. Easing the Transition
• Training
• Books
• Mentoring: boss, new peers, network
• Ask other managers
• Ask your reports (practice reflective listening!)
– what they want in a manager
– what they’d wish could change
25. Leverage Rules of Thumb
• Pair programming for half an hour during
an interview will save everyone’s time.
– David Vydra, TestDriven.com
• Writing clean code is what you must do in order
to call yourself a professional developer.
– Uncle Bob Martin, co-author, Agile Manifesto
• Brooks’s Law: Adding manpower to a late
software project makes it later.
– Frederick P. Brooks Jr.
26. Rules of Thumb / Nuggets of Wisdom*
* 300 in the book / more at http://managingtheunmanageable.net/morerulesofthumb.html
26(c) Ron Lichty: Teamwork: Making
Your Dream Team Come True
Ron@RonLichty.com
27. Become a Great Manager
• Fairness
• Ethical, forthright, honest
28. Ethical
• Leading by example occurs whether
you like it or not.
— Jateen Parekh, Founder, CTO, Jelli Crowdsourced Radio
29. Ethical
• Leading by example occurs whether
you like it or not.
— Jateen Parekh, Founder, CTO, Jelli Crowdsourced Radio
• Example is not the most important way of
influencing other people. It’s the only way.
— Albert Schweitzer
30. Leading by Example: Nugget of Wisdom
• Nothing undermines your credibility as a
manager more completely than pounding on
your team all year to get their work done on
time and then telling them you don’t have
their reviews done because you were busy.
Whatever you were busy with likely wasn’t
managing your people, so you’ve just
proven to them that they don’t matter. Good
luck motivating them next year.
– Tim Swihart, engineering director, Apple Computer
31. Become a Great Manager
• Fairness
• Ethical, forthright, honest
• Facilitate communication
33. Communicating
• You have to communicate more
• Encourage your team to communicate
• Create a culture of communication
– at every level
– with everyone
• up, down, within and across
• “We have two ears and one mouth. Use them in
this ratio.”
— Kimberly Wiefling
34. Become a Servant Leader
• Theory Y: “enabling”, “empowering”, “developmental",
“continuous improvement” -> Servant Leadership
McGregor's X-Y Theory
34(c) Ron Lichty
Managing the Unmanageable: Rules, Tools, and Insights for Managing Software People and Teams , http://www.ManagingTheUnmanageable.net
Ron@RonLichty.com
37. Always Be Recruiting
• Recruiting: A manager’s most important job
• Always be recruiting
– Be out there
38. Always Be Recruiting
• Recruiting: A manager’s most important job
• Always be recruiting
– Be out there
• Why must we give it focus & attention?
39. Always Be Recruiting
• Recruiting: A manager’s most important job
• Always be recruiting
– Be out there
• Why must we give it focus & attention?
– Hiring windows
40. Always Be Recruiting
• Recruiting: A manager’s most important job
• Always be recruiting
– Be out there
• Why must we give it focus & attention?
– Hiring windows
– Getting it right is critical
41. One Bad Hire
• a plague on your team for months
• demotivate your team
• demoralize your organization
• undermine your leadership
• incite dissension and strife
• delay or derail your deliverables
• and... it’s so hard it is to get rid of bad hires!
42. Always Be Recruiting
• Recruiting: A manager’s most important job
• Always be recruiting
– Be out there
• Why must we give it focus & attention?
– Hiring windows
– Getting it right is critical
• Don’t let fear of making a bad decision rule
44. Handle Problem Employees
• Know: There’s no perfect recruiting record
• Even if there were,
you’ll inherit a problem employee
45. Handle Problem Employees
• Know: There’s no perfect recruiting record
• even if there were, you’ll inherit a problem
• Intervention beats performance plans & firing
– Requires preparation, commitment, time
– But it’s focused on fixing the issue earlier:
• Marty Brounstein: Handling the Difficult Employee
46. Intervention Meetings
• a LOT of preparation
• stating the problem
• list every impact
• let your employee vent
• brainstorm solutions
• map out a plan
– that must include regular, structured follow-ups
47. Handle Problem Employees
• Know: There’s no perfect recruiting record
• Intervention beats performance plans & firing
– Requires preparation, commitment, time
– But it’s focused on fixing the issue earlier:
• Marty Brounstein: Handling the Difficult Employee
• One of two results:
– Turns them around
– They quit on their own
48. Handle Problem Employees
• Know: There’s no perfect recruiting record
• Intervention beats performance plans & firing
– Requires preparation, commitment, time
– But it’s focused on fixing the issue earlier:
• Marty Brounstein: Handling the Difficult Employee
• One of two results:
– Turns them around
– They quit on their own
• Handle it!
49. Programmers Aren’t All Alike!
• Programming disciplines
• Generations of programmers
• Morning people vs night people
• Employees vs Contractors
• Proximity
• Cowboys vs Farmers
50. Stay Focused on What’s Important!
In the beginning, everyone will talk about
scope, and budget, and schedule, but in
the end, nobody really cares about any
of those things. The only thing they care
about is this:
People will love your software, or they
won’t.
So that’s the only criterion to which you
should truly manage.
—Joseph Kleinschmidt, SF CTO / now CEO
53. – imperative not to micromanage
– the essence of delegation
– setting expected outcomes for teams
Leaders and Delegation
Trust but verify.
-RONALD REAGAN quo3ng VLADIMIR LENIN
53
54. Leaders and Delegation
I inspect what I expect.
- ALAN LEFKOF, Netopia CEO, quo3ng LOU GERSTNER
54
Trust but verify.
-RONALD REAGAN quo3ng VLADIMIR LENIN
59. Be Careful What You Reward
• “Behavior revolves around what you measure.”
--Jim Highsmith
– If you reward heroes...
• What gets measured gets manipulated.
• “Do you define “done” as “coding complete”?
– Or as features that delight customers?
• Be very careful trying to reward with cash
60. Managers Must Foster Culture
• Trust Our People
• Empower Self-Organization & Excellence
• Expect / Enable Truly Shared Leadership
• Model, Defend, Evangelize Agile Values
• Foster a Culture of Communication
• Encourage Teamwork and Collaboration
• Shield Teams from Politics & Distraction
• Take Care of Stuff! Take Care of Teams!
61. Establishing Culture
• Does your company live its values?
• Programming culture ≠ corporate culture
– Wall parts off
– Substitute and bolster more appropriate values
• Wherever you can, leverage culture & values
62. Establishing Culture
• “Publicly reward or acknowledge engineers
who act in a way that supports the culture
that you want to create.”
—Juanita Mah, engineering manager
64. Learn to Manage Up
• “The single most important leader in an
organization is your immediate supervisor.”
– Jim Kouzes
• “You can safely assume all perceptions are
real, at least to those who own them.”
– Joe Folkman
65. Managing Out & Up
• Because
– your peers increasingly are not technical
– and your boss may not be either
• …they’ll pressure you
– to micromanage your team (or let them)
– to report on / prove your team’s productivity
– to fill your team’s plates to capacity
66. Climbing the Career Ladder
The very thing that has made you
successful in your last role will get
in your way in your next role.
67. These, or...
• Your new hire’s first day
• Fostering and nurturing unique culture
• The value of regular one-on-ones
• Managing your people
• Getting programmers to work together well
68. So Why Manage?
• You get to go broad
– Affect more of the product
– Affect more of the customer experience
• You get to be more in the conversation
• You get to mentor and coach and motivate
– A whole team
– To become something more
69. A Few Closing Rules of Thumb
• If you’re a people manager, your people are far more important than
anything else you’re working on.
—Tim Swihart, Engineering Director
• Projects should be run like marathons. You have to set a healthy pace
that can win the race and expect to sprint for the finish line.
—Ed Catmull, CTO, Pixar Animation Studios
• In applications with high technical debt, estimating is nearly
impossible.
—Jim Highsmith, Agile Coach and Leader
• The quality of code you demand during the first week of a project is
the quality of code you’ll get every week thereafter.
—Joseph Kleinschmidt, CTO, Leverage Software
70. Raffle!
• either
– business card
– name / email onto blank
• If you still want to manage...
– Focus on becoming the manager and the leader
you always wanted to work for
72. Ron Lichty Consulting
• Mentoring, coaching, training, consulting:
– http://ronlichty.com, Ron@RonLichty.com
• The book:
Managing the Unmanageable:
Rules, Tools & Insights for Managing Software People & Teams
– http://ManagingTheUnmanageable.net <-----tools, excerpts, more rules of thumb
• The video training:
LiveLessons: Managing Software People and Teams
– http://ManagingTheUnmanageable.net/video.html
• The study:
The Study of Product Team Performance
– http://ronlichty.com/study.html
• Training:
The Agile Manager
Managing Software People and Teams
Zero to Agile in Three Days
72
73. Informit.com/lichty
Video Training 50% discount code:
• Use code VIDEO50
Book 35% discount code:
• Use code SWDEV35
• Good whether print, eBook, or combination
• eBook includes PDF, EPUB, MOBI formats
Discount codes applicable only at informit.com
Also available on the Safari Bookshelf
74. Ron Lichty Consulting
• Mentoring, coaching, training, consulting:
– http://ronlichty.com, Ron@RonLichty.com
• The book:
Managing the Unmanageable:
Rules, Tools & Insights for Managing Software People & Teams
– http://ManagingTheUnmanageable.net <-----tools, excerpts, more rules of thumb
• The video training:
LiveLessons: Managing Software People and Teams
– http://ManagingTheUnmanageable.net/video.html
• The study:
The Study of Product Team Performance
– http://ronlichty.com/study.html
• Training:
The Agile Manager
Managing Software People and Teams
Zero to Agile in Three Days
74