How Do I Manage Seasoned Programmers? 551
An anonymous reader writes "I have a technology background and worked as a programmer for a few years before slipping over to the dark side. I am now on the business side and have been given responsibility for a small team of Java programmers. While the technology aspect of what my team works on doesn't scare me, I need ideas to make sure the team stays motivated while reporting to me, a business-oriented guy. Perhaps I should mention I am in my early 30s while the majority of the team constitute an older, wiser generation. What advice should I follow to avoid turning into yet another Bill Lumbergh?"
Don't be a douche (Score:5, Informative)
These are creative people, and will resist things like status reports and hard work schedules.
Seasoned Programmers? (Score:5, Funny)
Salt / Pepper / Oregeno?
TFA doesn't really help.
Re:Seasoned Programmers? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Seasoned Programmers? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Seasoned Programmers? (Score:5, Insightful)
Actually, this is closer to the truth for MANY jobs than most managers would want to admit.
In many jobs, the line employee has a better idea of what's going on, and the low-level nitty-gritty details of how to best achieve what has to be done, than the manager. Management of programmers should be about saying "these are the requirements', and NOT adding "and this is how you're going to achieve them". Rather, "These are the requirements; what do you need to make it happen, and how do you propose attacking it?"
After all, as the article says
Too many people think "management" meand "dictate" instead of "collaborate".
Re:Seasoned Programmers? (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.hp.com/retiree/history/founders/packard/11rules.html
Re: (Score:3)
Re:Seasoned Programmers? (Score:5, Funny)
lipstick!
Re:Seasoned Programmers? (Score:4, Funny)
Key Point # 1 (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Key Point # 1 (Score:5, Funny)
Yeah, watch some documentaries about pack animals or life in prison. That should give you some ideas for ways to communicate that you are the Alpha Male.
Re:Key Point # 1 (Score:5, Funny)
Absolutely! Piss in the corner of their cubicles or offices. Hit on their wives/girlfriends when they come around. Make their property yours. Let those guys know who's boss!
Re:Key Point # 1 (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Key Point # 1 (Score:4, Insightful)
There's an alternative theory of human social structure, in which men naturally organize themselves into a hunting band with one leader over a group of more-or-less-equals. The leader maintains his position because the other guys like him and trust that they will be successful under his leadership. The leader usually isn't even be the roughest, toughest guy. The biggest sin in this kind of group is overvaluing yourself relative to your contribution to the group: arrogance and selfishness are punished.
That's quite different from wolf pack model where there's a heirarchy from the strongest at the top to the weakest at the bottom. The only sin in a wolf pack is weakness: weakness is punished ruthlessly.
In a wolf pack model, the manager would have to be the best coder, the strongest personality, or the toughest hombre. But in real life the manager is usually a poor (or washed up) coder who is allowed to play a "superior" role because the people under him believe the group will be successful under his leadership. Managers who believe they are better than their underlings face constant undermining and insubordination.
Re:Key Point # 1 (Score:5, Funny)
The manager should come off as being "cool" and sympathetic to the programmers. The managers should let the programmers know that, since he is familiar with programming, he has a genuine interest(and is also paying attention to ensure that the programmers are doing their job right) into what exactly is going on as opposed to just walking around with a clipboard pretending to do work and pontificating about deadlines.
Interact with the programmers and ask them questions so that you appear to care and humor them by letting them be the master, you the learner, and that will quickly dispel any "We're seasoned pros, why should we listen to that pipsqueak?"-type attitudes. Stress that you are "one of the boys" and poke fun at yourself with PHB jokes while demonstrating that you're obviously not a PHB.
Re:Key Point # 1 (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Key Point # 1 (Score:5, Funny)
I'm pretty sure they throw you in jail for doing unto others what I would have them do unto me without their permission.
Re:Key Point # 1 (Score:5, Insightful)
I think you just described Micheal from "The Office."
Re:Key Point # 1 (Score:5, Informative)
I will add to this as I have "been there, done that." As a manager of a group of programmers it's your job to be the bridge between them and their ideas, thoughts, feelings about the project they are working on and the company they work for, and the management that you report to, get budget from, sets goals and, ultimately, pays your paycheck. As the middle man in this scenario you have to take the arrows from both sides and figure out how to keep the team together and motivated, as well as meet you budget and deliver a product on time. These are not easy things to do with youngsters that don't know any better, but even harder to do with more mature, "seasoned" programmers.
What you need to understand is that as a new manager your role is to learn. The company hopes you learn from the mature programmers how best to get a project out the door. The programmers hope you learn how to balance your humanity with the needs of the company so their world doesn't get turned upside-down. My suggestion: Be as hands-on as possible with the project. This means that the unit you are in charge of becomes flat from an organizational perspective; only communication in and out of the group to and from upper management is filtered through you, and being the team leader when key decisions need to be made, differentiate you from the rest of the team. I have found that my teams respect me and my skills (both inside and outside the team's competency) better and I get to build a more human rapport with those on the team. You'll be surprised at how the mocking behavior will turn into good natured ribbing that you would expect in a tightly knit team. It won't completely eliminate malicious behavior because there's always someone in every group that will disagree with something you do, but it sure does let folks know you're not an armchair quarterback blindly following directives from upstairs. You will probably hone your programming chops in the process.
Bottom line, create an environment of mutual respect and allow the social interactions to progress at their own rate. Keep the team focused and motivated by being in the thick of things with them. Remember, it's your team and if you don't take ownership/stewardship/responsibility for them then why should they or management care what happens? They won't, because you won't be a manager for long.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Key Point # 1 (Score:5, Funny)
You have a good point. However, you still should get modded +1 douche for using the word "irregardless".
Re:Key Point # 1 (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Key Point # 1 (Score:5, Interesting)
Like anyone's going to listen to someone who thinks irregardless is a word, regardless of the merit of what they said
Re:Don't be a douche (Score:5, Insightful)
No that's not flamebait, in fact, it's excellent advice. You can't run a department of advanced programmers the same way that you run a Burger King. Well, you can but you won't have any advanced programmers left if you do. Professionals typically don't enjoy working for someone that doesn't give them the respect that they've earned. Unreasonable timelines designed to drive results for the company will cause your employees to cut corners and deliver an inferior product. When this happens your good employees will no longer feel good about the job they are doing and go find a new one. Good products take time and money. If you want it fast, and cheap it ain't gonna be worth $h!t. Good employees want to work for good companies. It's a simple equation really.
Status reports are a bunch of non-sense. Requiring your employees to file status reports tells me three things. 1) You don't know enough about what they are doing to manage them, 2) how long it should take, and 3) you don't trust them to work as professionals to deliver a quality product. That last part causes resentment, and if you really want good people to work for you then you treat them like good people until they give you a reason to treat them differently. If you don't care about the people that are working for you then just skip the preliminaries and go straight to managing a project full of Indian developers.
Re:Don't be a douche (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Don't be a douche (Score:4, Insightful)
If they can't be bothered to fill in a basic status report, you really don't want them anyway. I don't give a damn HOW good they think they are, if they can't do what they are told to do, they're next to worthless.
This bullshit about how you let good/great programmers get by with whatever they want is just that, bullshit. They aren't any different than any other employee, they can either function as a normal person or not, if not, you are probably better of firing the 'uber programmer' and hiring a half-assed programmer that will actually act like a normal human being. Its far more important for a company to have a reliable individual than it is to half a great programmer who doesn't listen or does whatever THEY want rather than what you need from them.
There is a LOT more to being a 'great programmer' than the code you write, and all those people who think they are so great they don't have to do any of the management related portions of the job really aren't that great. ESPECIALLY the ego.
Remember, big ego != (actually good || worth keeping around || worth paying || worth having to deal with)
Re:Don't be a douche (Score:5, Insightful)
Of course your employees should do what is expected of them, they're being paid to do so. And you're right about the ego!
The point, though, is that requiring silly things of your good people is a sure way to see them leave for something better.
Do you think the quality of your company will not suffer if the highest quality employees leave?
Then treat them with the respect they require, and they will return the favor.
Formal status reports, by the way, definitely fall into the "silly" category, as do daily status meetings. If you want to know what someone is doing, then visit them and ask. You'll find that they're probably eager to tell you all about what they're doing.
So while you had a nice rant there, I wouldn't want to work for you under those circumstances.
Re:Don't be a douche (Score:5, Insightful)
There are so many wrongs in this paragraph, it hurts.
First off, written status reports are not a part of "acting like a normal human being" or even of "being a normal employee". It's a sign of a dysfunct corporate culture where people don't talk to each other and where middle management is not even trusted with rating their own teams.
The normal process for dealing with a problem-employee would be to talk about it. You know, stuff like: "Hey bob, what's up with your performance recently". And to closely monitor problem areas in order to find ways for improvment. Know what, it seems like that would be your actual job if you weren't all busy passing written self-assessments back and forth.
Secondly, working with half-assed programmers is always more expensive than working with uber-programmers (aka "rockstars"). But by the way you describe your environment I strongly doubt that you'd be able to convince a rockstar to work for you anyways. I even doubt that you have ever only interviewed a rockstar that deserves this label.
A strong indicator for a great programmer is that he indeed doesn't need to listen to you much. Not because he doesn't want to, but rather because he already understands your pesky little business problems and requirements better than you do. A great programmers explains your problems to you, not the other way round. In an environment where rockstars are involved you merely exist to serve the programmers needs, you are effectively their secretary. You schedule meetings, acquire resources for them, interface with other parts of the company and generally make sure that nothing gets in their way of getting the job done. "Written reports" are an anachronism in such a setting. Hence my conclusion that you have never worked with a rockstar and not the slightest idea how they tick.
Re:Don't be a douche (Score:5, Insightful)
Your point is cogent. I do not advocate the elimination of all management, just the elimination of inexpert management of professional projects.
To take the lawyer example, the senior partner reviews the associate's draft. He's looking at the work, not a status report. For fighter pilots and traders, it just gets easier: the results are plain and status flows from them naturally.
A good IT project runs the same way: the manager is a domain expert, and can evaluate the product as it is being created. If she can't do this, or relies on self-assessment of her reports, the product is going to suck.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
'In addition, my experience is that is many cases people who think they can bullshit their way through a report and look good are often detected doing that'
Then again, nobody would know if you're wrong eh?
Sort of like the police always catching the bad guys in crime when they are lucky to catch one in a thousand.
Re:Don't be a douche (Score:5, Insightful)
I agree on most counts. When you're an ideal manager, your job is to shield your employees from the bullshit from above as much as possible, so they can get their work done as well as possible. That may sometimes require a status report or meeting or something so that you can report to the muckity mucks upstream on what's going on. But it shouldn't be a replacement for involvement with your employees. If you don't know what they're working on and roughly where they are in the task or what problems they're facing, you're doing it wrong.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Status reports are a bunch of non-sense.
An efficient statusing process is necessary. You can do it with meetings, you can do it by talking to people, or you can do it with email/spreadsheets. If you have people write a concise summary of where they are on a weekly basis, they can do it when it's convenient for them. The alternative is the manager interrupting them and taking more of their developer's time than it would to update the current task list with .
If you have a team of three, yeah, this may be
Re:Don't be a douche (Score:4, Interesting)
Anonymous status reports.. WTF.
Was reading the other day about a development house that has the programmers fill out time sheets and status reports but that these reports are specifically not used by managers and can not be used for punishment. They are used to generate cost and time estimates, what works, what doesn't etc etc. The group that handles these reports are independent and not the managers. They know that the second reports can be used for punishment or rewards most of the data will become fake and totally usable for statistical purposes.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
will resist things like status reports and hard work schedules.
I disagree. I don't mind status reports and hard work. In fact, I immensely prefer a rational status reporting approach to an hour(s) long meeting of listening to everyone recite where -they- are with the project. JoelOnSoftware has some good thoughts on how to do this crisply. I would much rather take 10 minutes to summarize my status in a weekly email, and in fact have tried to force this discipline into my current team, against the resist
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
How Do I Manage Seasoned Programmers?
My favorite solution is to set them on fire and launch them out a window.
the trebuchet (http://www.trebuchet.com/)on the roof gains you extra points.
Launch the most vocal two and the rest fall in line quite quickly.
(funny how that works)
Um, duh (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Two words: business hammocks.
There's four places:
There's the Hammock Hut, that's on third.
There's Hammocks-R-Us, that's on third too.
You got Put-Your-Butt-There - that's on third.
Swing Low, Sweet Chariot...
Matter of fact, they're all in the same complex; it's the hammock complex on third.
Oh, the hammock district.
That's right.
Specs (Score:5, Informative)
As a programmer, the thing I hate the most is having to redo code over again due to poor specs or bad design docs. Make sure they are organized and have the correct specifications.
Re:Specs (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Specs (Score:5, Insightful)
Or no specs at all. The last thing I want as an engineer is someone to come to me with their own solution they want me to implement.
Good software engineers enjoy solving tough problems. So present them with the problems you are trying to solve and let them come up with their own solutions
Re:Specs (Score:5, Funny)
A proper functional spec does describe the problem.
Or so I'm told, I've never actually seen one.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Noooo... No specs means no one knows what is built or why. 6 months later when something changes, there is no baseline!
That said specs != a detailed plan on what to build, how and with what technologies / architectures. Specs = exact requirements as to what the business wants. You as the engineer get to figure out the how part.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Kind of related to this is decision making. Don't put a decision off to make sure we know 100% the best possible solution. Usually a good-enough solution will work until more is known about the problem (especially if it contributes to the later solutions).
I've seen near a year lost on a project because management couldn't make the decision everyone knew they would.
Really, there's only one thing... (Score:5, Informative)
The big problem I see in people who are tech managers is a lack of understanding of project management. They're fine with people, if not missing some subtlety here and there, and it sounds like you've got a team that has few personnel problems. So focus on building your project management talents, which is about deadlines, coming up with objective measurements for progress, and setting realistic goals. Your team should be able to tell you where the trouble spots will be in the development cycle, how fast they expect to overcome each obstacle, and help you plot a roadmap, but only if you ask the right questions.
It's good for the programmers, too. (Score:3, Insightful)
Project management is not only for the managers. Grab some basic books on the subject (hopefully based around software development) and have the coders read them.
If nothing else, it gives everyone a shared vocabulary for the situations and approaches that they'll face.
If nothing else, read a website on it.
http://www.stevemcconnell.com/rdenum.htm [stevemcconnell.com]
or
http://www.stevemcconnell.com/rdmistak.htm [stevemcconnell.com]
Or you could make things easy on yourself... (Score:5, Interesting)
...and use Agile. Here is the best book in the world: Agile estimation and planning [amazon.com]
To micro-manage them is to underutilize them (and to frustrate them). Your job is to understand the business problems and communicate them as business problems, and let the team figure out the technical solutions...they should give you some alternatives, and let you pick the right ones. After that, your job is to ensure that nothing obstructs their development, and to take action whenever they tell you that they are blocked.
If you must be hard on deadlines, then you must be soft on requirements. Or vice versa. Being hard on both will always guarantee failure to deliver, and talent walking out the door. Usually being hard on deadlines is the choice of the day.....so being soft on requirements must be done, but *intelligently.* Some requirements are core to the usefulness of the app. Some are gold-plating. Move the gold-plating to the bottom of the priority heap. Each iteration will then represent the maximum possible business value that can be developed within the allotted time.
You also spend a lot less time trying to stick stuff end-to-end in making a project plan and having to spend more time changing it all around after things don't go as planned halfway through the project. Micro-managers tend to hate agile, despite the fact that it is a much more realistic addressing of the realities of software development than traditional, waterfall, winds up being.
Re:Or you could make things easy on yourself... (Score:5, Insightful)
I'd be careful before giving such blanket advice. Agile is not a silver bullet, and its gurus never claimed it to be. There are many projects and environments in which it doesn't work at all, or doesn't work as well as other alternatives. It can also be pretty messy when not done correctly. Most of all, it cannot be pushed onto the unwilling team - it requires full cooperation to be successful; if programmers on the team don't "feel agile", adopting the outer layers won't help you at all, and is likely to hurt you.
I've actually seen Agile pushed in a company by upper management with programmers and managers not properly familiar with it, not used to it, and not liking it. The results were pretty bad, in my estimation (that experiment is still ongoing, just without me).
Re:Or you could make things easy on yourself... (Score:5, Funny)
"Agile is not a silver bullet, and its gurus never claimed it to be"
Gurus never claim that their way is a silver bullet, they just claim it will bring down a werewolf or vampire with a single shot.
Beer (Score:5, Insightful)
Seriously, they're people. You make it sound like you're some exotic zoo keeper and you need to know what to do when they present their glowing red ass.
Why don't you think: "How would I like to be treated?" With respect, open communication, acknowledgment of work done, incentive for above and beyond... and learn who they are.
The fact that you cared enough to ask is a big step.
Re:Beer (Score:5, Funny)
You know actually, I'd love to know what the correct response is when a programmer does this. I generally just run away.
Be a friend first. Informal meetings, free food. (Score:5, Informative)
Assuming you're all in the same office...
One-on-one meetings in a comfortable and somewhat informal manner. Make it regular (twice a week or so?) and find some way to give them advanced notice indirectly, like doing it at the same time every week or passing by their office/cubes a few minutes before jumping in to ask for the informal report. If you startle them, leave and come back in a few minutes (really!). Their desks should be oriented in a manner that makes it hard to sneak up on them; if that's not the case, buy a mirror [google.com] for their monitor.
Group meetings at a less often interval (weekly or every other week) where everybody talks about what they're doing, and you reveal the long-term strategies, etc. Doing this over a free lunch or end-of-day beers (5:30p is "beer thirty" on "frosty friday" or "thirsty thursday," etc.) is always a winner. You already know most of the answers, so this is actually all for their benefit; this is when you report to them and they report to each other. This helps emphasize the philosophy that when co-workers are all friends, more work gets done with less apparent effort.
Never criticize them for something you also fail at. Instead, announce that you're looking to improve that aspect in yourself and they'll get the message.
You read Slashdot, so you're probably very IT-savvy ... older software engineers are a bit removed from that, so be careful about introducing new services (e.g. software services for bug tracking [mantisbt.org], wiki [wikipedia.org], source control [opensolaris.org], project management [project.net], social networking [facebook.com]). When you do such introductions, make sure they are walked through, and the installation process is trivialized (all the above examples are web-based to eliminate client-side installation).
Finally, pick up a book on agile development [wikipedia.org] practice and consider migrating the team to a scrum [wikipedia.org] cycle. Even if you decide it's not the right idea (or if you're already doing it), it will give you some management insight.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
One-on-one meetings in a comfortable and somewhat informal manner. Make it regular (twice a week or so?) and find some way to give them advanced notice indirectly, like doing it at the same time every week or passing by their office/cubes a few minutes before jumping in to ask for the informal report. If you startle them, leave and come back in a few minutes (really!). Their desks should be oriented in a manner that makes it hard to sneak up on them; if that's not the case, buy a mirror [google.com] for their monitor.
Wait, is this still about the glowing red ass thing ?
Go with a standard approach (Score:2)
A lot of very smart people have put a lot of time in figuring out good methods of managing development, so there's no need to come in and re-invent the wheel.
I recommend finding an Agile training class someplace and learning how to manage a team using Scrum development -- it's a dandy way to go about things, developers tend to like it and it'll keep your business-side guys happy. I'd also pick up and read "Scrum from the Tre
Flip every 5 minutes (Score:5, Funny)
You don't want to touch them too often or they get tough and dried out.
Oh wait, that's hamburgers. Nevermind.
Get out of their way! (Score:4, Insightful)
Focus on getting them what they need, staying out of their way, and keeping the management shit out of their way.
Re:Get out of their way! (Score:4, Interesting)
Developers are like creative people the world over -- you've got to keep them on track, and that means managing them properly. Again, I recommend the Scrum model.
Re:Get out of their way! (Score:4, Interesting)
I disagree, to a certain extent.
My job is to give estimates, draw up designs/estimates, handle bugs/features as requested, and ensure that my boss is up to date on how things are tracking to the plan.
In return, he acts as an interface with upper management, runs interference to make sure I'm not bothered by less important issues, makes sure I get appropriate lab/tester resources, handles priority calls between competing issues, and all the other stuff that I'd rather not have to deal with.
It's a symbiotic relationship.
Everything you need to know is on the simpsons (Score:5, Funny)
"Are you working?"
"yes"
"Can you work harder?"
"good"
If they get tired buy them hammocks.
It helps if your wearing a Tom Landrey hat.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Listen, listen, listen (Score:5, Interesting)
Listen.
Be open to criticism and be willing to change course in response to it.
Make sure when you do talk technical, you know what you're talking about. Feel free to ask questions if you don't know, and be able to absorb and express abck what you've learned.
If you need to make a decision based on "fluffy business stuff" that goes against the right theing to do on a technical issue, explain it thouroughly and be able to back it up. Geeks thrive on more information, not less.
Give the geeks freedom to graze.
Difficult (Score:4, Insightful)
See, the key here is whether or not these developers are good developers. Experienced and responsible.
If they are, the best advice I'd give you is to stay the hell out of their way. They will deliver. The best developers need a set of requirements, a deadline, a good working environment and caffeinated drinks. Not much more.
But on the other hand, if they're not, then you need to stay on top of them. But how are you going to figure out if they are, given that you're a business guy? That's a difficult situation.
If you do know that at least one of them is the kind of person that can lead, work through him/her to make sure you can identify any potential problems.
There's nothing better than a good developer who can design, code, document and communicate, and does not need constant supervision. On the other hand, there's nothing worse than one that pretends to do those things and turns out to be a disaster for the project.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Remeber, coders are just tools that convert caffeine and alcohol into source code...
As a seasoned programmer I can easily answer this (Score:5, Insightful)
You don't have to. You are redundant.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
You don't have to. You are redundant.
There is a lot of truth in this.
Assuming that you have a good team (not one where they trapped all of the old malcontents together so they'd be easy to herd), they'll know what to do. In general, your job is going to be making sure that the goals for your project are clear, that you have enough resources to do the job that is scoped, negotiating about limiting the scope when you don't have the resources, making sure that you have a detailed enough plan for the short te
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
I've found that seasoned programmers, even so-called "agile" ones, often miss the big picture when it comes to changing business needs, shifting priorities, budget cuts, politics, etc. Some programmers exhibit the same attitude as Dante Hicks in "Clerks": "You know, this job would be great if it wasn't for the fucking customers". Others listen to the customer too much, when it should be clear that the customer doesn't really know (yet) what he wants. Programmers may
Cattle prods, Electroshock therapy, and drugs (Score:3, Interesting)
What does responsibility mean? Can you fire them and increase their salaries? If so, then they should be relatively motivated to at least meet your expectations.
What can you do to make it easier? Don't be a bozo. That means (1) take the political heat for your team, and (2) try and insulate them from changes in specs. Or, (3) make sure they know what they're building/supposed to do.
Think of them as normal employees, not programmers. Sure they may be smart, but they're still people. Possibly weird, potentially infantile, probably high maintenance, and hopefully productive people, but they're still people. So treat them like everyone else.
Oh, and be sure to treat them like experts. They like that.
Ask for their input ... and actually listen to it. (Score:4, Interesting)
Seriously. People will tend to respond a lot better to you if they feel that they have legitimate input into the process, and many of those folks might be able to provide ideas and experience that you can benefit directly from.
Of course, I'm speaking as a 46-year-old programmer who's been doing software design/development for 20 years, so my bias is from the other side. Then again, most of the folks I tend to deal with are at my experience level or higher so in many cases *I* tend to be the youngster with the radical ideas. But I've learned to defer to my elders in many cases even tho I disagree. Sometimes they actually turn out to be right! ;-)
Golden Rule of Management (Score:3, Insightful)
Be the type of manager that YOU would want to work for.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm not sure that's a prescription for on-time product delivery or a successful career, however.
A few things (Score:4, Insightful)
First, remember that they know more about what they're doing than you do. Listen to them. If they say a schedule is unrealistic, it is almost certainly unrealistic, and you need to take whatever business action is appropriate. They know better than you how to do things. Tell them what to do, not how to do it. Tell them the business reasons for doing things. They might have better ideas than you.
Second, be honest with them. Don't be afraid to tell them things they might not want to hear, but if they catch you in substantive lies your effectiveness will nose-dive. Explain yourself.
Third, set them up to succeed. Try to figure out what obstacles they're likely to run into, and try to remove them.
Fourth, keep up to date on their progress. Don't let them go dark on you. Don't make them afraid to admit failure or schedule overruns, or you'll be blindsided sometime.
These won't necessarily help you with problem employees, but most of your employees are probably interested in doing a good job.
Re:A few things (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
There's two things that my boss does that really upsets me more than anything else. The first one is that he will often promise my time to other people,be it clients/coworkers/consultants/whoever, without first checking with me to see if that time is actually available. Not only does that saddle me with significantly more work than I want to deal with, but it creates a situation where this new task takes up time that I had personally committed to helping someone else, and so I get stuck having to apologize
Ask them (Score:4, Interesting)
That's it. Pretty simple, eh?
If they are seasoned, keep out of their way, help them when they are frustrated, and make sure they are doing stuff they enjoy and keep them happy. They find a new technology they want to use? You make sure they get the opportunity to use it. They want a managerial job? You make sure they get the classes/seminars/education/opportunities they need. Your job is simply to remove obstacles that get in there way...
easy answer (Score:4, Funny)
Simple really (Score:3, Interesting)
Hmmm ... (Score:4, Funny)
First thing you need to do is establish yourself as the alpha geek. Walk into the room and fire the first one to make eye contact. Then expound for two hours on how crappy Java is and how all you really need is a copy of Ruby on Rails and a Red Bull to be able to cover everything they do.
The next day, show up with a box of Dilbert comics and pass them out, demand each team member identify five 'wrong thoughts' express by Dilbert and his coworkers and indicate how they actually should have acted in regards to their PHB. Emphasize that the PHB a highly paid executive and deserves their attention and respect. Dilbert's job is to make his bosses' ideas successful, not to mock him.
The next day, first the second person who makes eye contact with you. Encourage your team to ridicule them as they make the walk of shame from your office to the exit.
The day after that, ask them to participate in a team building session where everyone is armed with a nerf weapon and is allowed to act out their aggression. Bring your own baseball bat.
The day after that mention that you expect the team to put in manditory overtime. You forgot to mention to them that they have a milestone deadline coming up tomorrow and you are still working with marketing to finialize the specs.
On the day after that, enjoy the peace and quiet you've earned yourself. You'll need it as you now no longer have a team to worry about.
Been there, done that (Score:5, Insightful)
Went back to the tech side.
But the management stint wasn't wasted. It did make me realize there is a "bigger picture" that is always mentioned. I'd say the most important thing is to get this across. Tell them there will be decisions made by you, sometimes that you have control over and sometimes not, that won't make a lot of sense at your group's level. If they're your decisions you have some hope of explaining them. If they are decisions made up the chain then give as much information as you have and point out that it made sense to someone at some point and since y'all are all getting a paycheck from the same company then those are the marching orders.
Other than that just work to get your team the things they need. It's their work that will make you look good (or bad) so your job is to make sure they have the tools and time they need to do their jobs. If you give them that then they need to actually do their jobs and you will want to keep them accountable for that. Nothing says bad manager more than someone who ignores the slacker while everyone else is pulling their weight.
$0.02,
-CZ
confidence (Score:3, Insightful)
Very Simple (Score:5, Interesting)
Bullshit stops at YOUR door. Whether coming down from your management, or headed up from one of your primadonna coders.
Your job is to provide the environment that best lets your people do what they do best. You are insulation, you are the sponge, you are the glue. All superfluous shit must be sandwiched and eaten by you.
Don't try to be technical, admit what you don't know and ask for explanations. Realize that coders consider their code as a mother does her children. If you criticize, you better be right, or you will be hated forever. If the baby is truly ugly, KNIFE it, don't adapt to crap.
NEVER turn down a legitimate request for tools considered necessary for their jobs. NEVER. Find the money, find the stomach to fight your management for the funds, and YOU make the arguments on your people's behalf.
This is how you get coders on your side. (that and free food and drink.)
You have to be the cog in the wheel.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Most advice so far concentrates on the obvious.
I will stay with the darker side that nobody likes to talk about.
Do not subordinate your will. You may be younger, but you have the authority. They owe you their duty, it us up to you to earn their loyalty. Let's say that again: it is up to you to earn their loyalty. Seasoned professionals respect strength and competence. We can smell incompetence and fear like a jackal. If you show strength, your team
glower at them in the hallway (Score:4, Funny)
focus on a pointless statement in an offhand conversation, and keep repeating it over and over, getting louder all the time, the whole week, with a huge grin on your face, like its a hilarious joke
ask them to come in your office and sit down, ask them to close the door in a very soft whisper, and then stand up, displaying an obvious erection in your pants
in the company restroom, stand next to them while they are urinating, even if there are ten open urinals, and make sure to pee a little on their shoes, making emotionless blank eye contact while doing so
sit silently in a meeting for the longest time, with a slightly pained expression, then excuse yourself, and, outside of the room but within earshot/ plain view, starting crying loudly and hysterically like a wounded child
in no time you will be deriving the respect and affection you deserve
don't let the inmates run the asylum... (Score:4, Insightful)
You need to let the programmers do what they do best...while remembering programmers' tendencies to do things like pick resume-padding technologies instead of the right technologies and freaking out over small changes instead of rolling with the punches. Easier said than done, but it's the truth.
Also, whatever you do, do NOT, as some people have erroneously suggested, "be the manager that you would want to work for" because there's a good chance you don't share the same values as some of your programmers. The best rule for managers is to treat others like they want you to treat them.
For example, I'm not particularly driven by money. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't work for free and I like financial security, but when I line up priorities, thingslike freedom of time and thought are a lot more important to me than if a bonus is paid at 150% or something like that. My favorite managers have understood this, even if they don't understand how I'm wired, and they tend to leave me alone and not over-manage, unless absolutely necessary. And I've worked quite hard for them.
So as much as you can (while maintaining consistency and keeping expectations well-known), adapt to each individual instead of implementing some across-the-board strategy. One guy may be driven by money. Another may be going through a divorce and always one the edge.
Programmers are people and there's plenty of good and bad that comes with that. Some of them are just going to be jerks. And some aren't. Some will even be tremendous people. There's nothing you can do about this, but don't let yourself get pushed around or too worked up about it.
Finally, always set clear expectations and never ever raise your voice or roll your eyes (neither of those work...).
Lead by Example, amongst others... (Score:4, Insightful)
Secondly, always check up on your people. It's amazingly simple to do, but it's almost a bygone in the modern corporate world. No matter how busy your month, take a good 5 or 10 minutes with each member of your team as ask them how everything's going, what some of there frustrations are, what are some things they may need. It's amazing how good a roadmap you get when you just sit an listen.
Communicate - both ways. Encourge input from your team, but dont be afraid to send some the other way. If someone's doing something you like, or not doing something, say so. Probably my biggest personal pet peeve is non-confrontational managers who basically shotgun-blast you with their little annoyances once a year at your performance review. Your team doesn't necessarily have to know where your at every second of every day, but it's always good to provide some high-level status updates. Take a few minutes out of your schedule to update the team.
Recognize good performance, but don't be overly cheesy about it. Taking a minute to walk into an office and say 'I really appreciate the effort you put in last week to meet the deadline, Jim' will often mean a lot. It means even more in person, rather than email.
I could go on, but really a lot of it is pretty straight forward. You people should want to work hard for you and want to impress you, and good leadership shows when they do. Treat you team members as professionals with respect and how you would like to be treated.
Engineer Management (Score:4, Insightful)
My area of expertise is not in programming, but rather in engineering - similar, but different too - so take this with a grain of salt.
As a manager of technically proficient people, you have only a few major tasks in front of you: first, be sure to marginalize or fire uncooperative or difficult people (the "no-assholes rule"). You can live with lower levels of expertise, but you cannot live with drama. To paraphrase Roger Zelazny, the graveyards are full of people who thought they couldn't be replaced.
Second, it's important to know that, aside from keeping the team asshole-free, you are not "in charge" here. They know what they are doing and they can track it better than you can. Employees of technical expertise actually need facilitators to assist them more than they need managers to direct their efforts. So be available to your team to take up the things they cannot afford to spend time doing - communicate with other departments, run interference with project managers, make sure that they get the help they need.
In my particular field, a manager should be prepared to provide more assistance than control. I don't think programming would be that different.
Help them be productive (Score:3, Informative)
What you're responsible for is what they produce, not the people. If your team is composed of professionals, they will be self-motivated already. So focus on helping them produce. This means looking for what's hampering them and working to minimize/eliminate it, and looking for what could make them more productive and working to provide that. If you don't know -- ask. Talk to them, as a group or one-on-one, and find out what their "pain points" are or what they want to see done.
Never forget they are people, not "human resources", and treating them with respect and consideration will earn you major props.
Thomas
Be a shit-umbrella (Score:4, Insightful)
The most inspiring thing a manager ever said to me, and a line which I always try to use when appropriate: That's my problem, let me handle that. Clear the landmines for them and let them run.
Give them space to do their jobs (Score:3, Informative)
I've just spent 2 years managing programmers who although not older, were generally much smarter than me, so I speak from relevant experience.
First of all you have one huge advantage; Software developers want to do great work. Coders are generally passionate and proud about what they do.
Your job is to make sure they have the environment they need to do that.
Programmers tend to be task-focussed people. Their faults are typically that they don't communicate unless asked, and they forget deadlines unless they are constantly made aware of them. Obviously I'm generalising here, but the balance of your team will probably tend this way.
So what you need to give them is clearly defined tasks, regular meetings where they talk to you and each other, and no excuse for not being aware of their targets/deadlines.
Most people, and geeks more than most, don't like to be ordered around and will be more invested in decisions they made themselves. Therefore when you make decisions about the development process, do it in a meeting. Say something like, "We need a more structured process for development." (Programmers will generally agree, they like order and structure, that's why they're programmers.) "We could use [insert favoured methodology here], what does the team think?"
If they have no stronger opinions, people will generally choose the one choice given to them and consider it to be their own idea from then on. If they /have/ got stronger opinions, they might well be worth listening to.
So in short;
Define the team methodology in as democratic manner as you can.
Get them to sign up to the methodology and make it theirs.
From then on enforce discipline with reference to the methodology. Your authority then proceeds from the team itself, as well as your position.
A couple of other piece of advice; be a hard-ass about defining requirements with your clients (internal or external) and even more so about changing them. Learn everything you can about software estimation. Most projects that fall over at the end make their mistakes at the beginning.
Unless your project is 100% exciting to everyone (Score:5, Insightful)
Unless your project is 100% exciting to everyone on the team, the answer is, you won't be able to manage it without adding some junior programmers. A dude with 10 years of experience and multiple death marches under his belt will simply find hard to get excited about the mundane. That's not what he's there for. He's there to take on the big challenges, design stuff that works and implement it in a way that he's not embarrased by it five years from now.
The corollary is either/or:
1. Most of your project must be "exciting" to developers on the team. Very few projects qualify. In this case you can spread the shitty bits around so that people are less annoyed by them.
2. You have to have a significant contingent of junior employees who will do the shitty bits that don't matter (but don't forget to throw them a bone and let them do something interesting as well).
Most importantly, show appreciation for the work people do, whether they're senior or junior. I've been in the industry for well over a decade, and you won't believe how much easier it is to motivate people if you just say thanks to each of them personally every now and then, and maybe slip in a perk here and there. For reasons I don't understand, a lot of managers focus a lot more on cracking the whip. Big mistake, if you want people to stick around and actually produce something decent.
Loop them in. (Score:3, Insightful)
Don't leave your developers out of your design discussions and brainstorming.
What I saw as good (Score:3, Insightful)
On my last project for an extremely large customer (with an equally huge project), the good line managers were our (the developers) advocates, they took the bullshit so we didn't have to, and determined the "big picture". They didn't manage who was doing which particular piece of code - that was down to the developers to organize themselves. Managing the development team was less about managing the people in it (the developers could organize themselves) but being an advocate for the team, and making sure that the people who knew how to do the stuff were fully involved in decisions affecting them. Developers were not merely involved but critical to things such as sizing parts of the project, so that unrealistic schedules were not set. The line manager's job was in this case often to tell upper management "this is why it's going to take this long" in terms they could understand, and persuade upper management not to cause a disaster by compressing schedules or adding more work.
It resulted in a productive development team which did not have to do unpaid overtime, and delivered a quality product to the customer - earning a very large sum of money for the company.
Try talking to them. (Score:4, Insightful)
This approach works fine for both Agile and Waterfall, if you really "get" both methodologies. When you're working with seasoned developers, you're probably working with guys and ladies who've developed strong interests in particular niches by this point in their careers. If you can find a section of your project that jibes with those interests, you'll probably get fantastic results out of those folks. People who tell you that it's better to stay super generalized and constantly switch tasks without respecting those interests don't understand that if you're not passionate about something in your job, you'll most likely start looking for another job.
And hey, if you have some seasoned guys who don't care either way, and just like that paycheck, those guys come in handy, too. They're like handymen, you can assign all the other tasks to them and they'll probably do them well enough. Saves you some time from trying to find contractors to do the work.
Easy (Score:3, Insightful)
I totally feel your pain, I served a tour as a lead programmer, then technical manager, then director, then back to lead. Here's some of the things that I learned that weren't the most obvious to my fellow managers in other departments:
1. Protect them. Put a programmer in a position in which he reports to just ONE boss and he'll follow you into hell. If the manager does his job, his programmers can actually spend the time programming instead of getting sucked into a reporting system where they have 8 bosses.
2. Don't waste their time. Corporate is always adding stupid crap that all it ends up doing is slowing down the personnel that are actually producing. Try to cut down on redundant and/or useless reports, non-project/deliverable meetings, etc. Your goal here is to have your people spend as much time as possible billing to a project instead of burning overhead.
3. Detach yourself a little bit. You are not their friend, you are their boss. You don't have to be an ass about it, but you can't hang out with them unless you take out the whole team for food, drinks, whatever. If you want to hang out with people in the same company, find other managers.
4. You can rule with an iron hand, but try not to humiliate people in public. If one of your guys screws up, pull him aside and deal with it in private. Just because you have to adjust the employee doesn't mean you have to add humiliation to the mix. I know too many managers that simply can't understand how crucial this is.
5. Don't obsess over the minutiae that is out of your control. The whole idea of having these senior guys is to have them do the heavy lifting for you, while you steer them in a general direction. Don't bother catching up to whatever technology they are dealing with. You do need to understand its capabilities and its limitations, but you don't need to know how to type the damn code yourself. Again, I know plenty of managers that refuse to let go and end up as horrible micromanagers.
The best way to handle senior people is to tell them what you expect them to deliver, with broad guidance, plus whatever constraints are in place and out of your control. Let them do the work, try not to stand on their way and protect them from people that won't hesitate to make them waste their time.
Oh for crying out loud (Score:5, Insightful)
Don't tell him that. He'll actually believe it.
Here's what you should actually do: Manage.
Be honest with your team. Tell them what you need and when you need it. Take advice from them on the best way to arrange that. If they're experienced (read that as set in their ways) forcing some oddball paradigm on them will send you permanently to PHB land. They'll never listen to you after that. You'll be regarded as an obstacle rather than a help.
You're herding cats - never forget that. Let them do what they want in the way they want to do it and all should be well. Just make sure they know what your expectations are.
And if you want something Lumbergh-like from them, say so. Then do the unusual thing and say why you want it. Don't just demand status reports from them. Ask for them, tell them you need these reports "because of pressure you're getting from your supervisor about this certain customer, and if we make schedule with this project they will potentially select us for the next project, and that means more revenue for the company."
Talk to them as equals. Explain your concerns to them. NEVER talk down to them or enforce some odd idea that the manager caste is above the programmer caste. You are all equals on a team, sink or swim together.
Do these things, ignore the buzzwords and manager-hype, be their fellow employee and the details will solve themselves. If these guys decide they like you your job will become a thousand times easier. You will always have loyal allies, rather than disgruntled drones.
And best of luck. Don't just be a manager - be a good one.
Re:Oh for crying out loud (Score:5, Funny)
Up a waterfall, with a rolled up tissue.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Thanks. =)
It's my opinion that a good manager understands their actual job function. Which can be summed up in one word - HELP.
It is their job to help. Two parts to that.
First part: Help the company get what it needs out of engineering. If sales promises a customer something, it is the managers job to help the sales staff get what it needs out of engineering. If manufacturing needs that new rom by Friday, it is the manager's job to help them get it from engineering.
Second part: Help engineeri
Bologna. (Score:3, Interesting)
And you treat your kids like they're your friends rather than your kids?
A poor metaphor. You and your children are not equals. Not in any way. Not legally, not in terms of experience, nada. They need stern guidance. Most grown-ups (meaning both engineers and managers) do not. If they do, they need fired, not managed.
That being said, I do my best to be a friend to my son. 99% of the time a kind word works as well (or better) than punishment. I won't hold back though if punishment is called for t
Re:Seasoned programmers... (Score:5, Insightful)
Read Hackers and Painters [amazon.com] and Mythical Man Month [amazon.com], especially the latter.
Know this: checking in on your developers via a bug tracking system is probably advisable instead of constantly walking in and saying, "What's happening." Note period instead of a question mark.
More suggested reading material (Score:3, Insightful)
I'll also recommend Peopleware [amazon.com] and follow the advice in the "Oh for crying out loud" post that this reply is under. I was going to post essentially the same advice.
I once managed a software development group that had several Ph.Ds, some people with Masters degrees (I have an M.Sc. in Math) and most of the rest with B.Sc.s in computer science. We were developing software for a radar project and most of the Ph.Ds had degrees that were applicable in fields like high energy physics and atmospheric physics,
programming != managing (Score:5, Insightful)
Your first post was possibly funny. Now you've proven you're either a troll or a bitter, jaded individual who was probably passed over for good reason.
It was actually a *mistake* that the only advancement path for most exceptional skilled workers was to become a manager that didn't use their exceptional skills. Project management has always been a specialized skillset. For some unknown reason, it was assumed that people who learned how to build things could also supervise other builders. I call shenanigans.
The military figured this out years ago. Commissioned officers make plans, non-coms implement the plan, and specialists do the work. Each butterbar junior officer goes through a fairly rigorous training course to give them the concepts and then they get to actually learn the job once they get assigned to their unit where their captain and sargeant finish up the training.
When the engineering company I used to work at introduced a "technical expert" path as well as a "project management" path I was overjoyed. Finally, the best do-ers could keep do-ing without being forced into managing. Plus, theoretically, the project managers would *finally* know how to manage.
None of that happened, unfortunately, so I jumped ship. Last I heard they were closing offices. The place I work at now does have various technical grades that provide a pretty wide salary band and it's doing fine.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Sorry Jamie, not the case here.
You make a false assumption with your title. Programmers aren't necessarily managers, but to manage a programming project, the manager HAS to be a programmer and a manager. This is a common mistake many people make, it's a popular meme that "with the right management skills, you can manage anything." But it's simply not the case. Look at Big 3 as a great example. They've been run by accountants/manager types for years and look where they've gotten.
Look at any company that got