Management for developers v.2

What does the management expect from a senior developer? One of the challenges for developers is to build a good team that will work smoothly and quickly and deliver quality products on time, but it won't always be easy or quick - or possible.

Transcript

1. MANAGEMENT FOR DEVELOPERS SASA SEKULIC
2. ABOUT ME ▸ Mobile engineering lead at Mobimeo (mobility company): https:// www.mobimeo.com/ ▸ ex-ShareTheMeal: https://sharethemeal.org - you can feed a child with just 0.40e ▸ https://www.linkedin.com/in/sasasekulic/ ▸ https://twitter.com/sasa_sekulic
3. MANAGING YOUR MANAGER MANAGEMENT AND YOU What does the management want from you? “WE EXPECTED MORE FROM A SENIOR DEVELOPER”
4. 1. ABC = ALWAYS BE COMMUNICATING ‣ Agile dailies & retrospectives - informing, not communicating! ▸ Ask questions - clarify sooner rather than later ▸ Don’t be shy: propose a (better) solution MANAGING YOUR MANAGER
5. 1. ABC = ALWAYS BE COMMUNICATING ▸ Wrong estimate? Notify stakeholders immediately ▸ Time box problem solving and escalate - worse than having a problem is hiding having a problem! ‣ Use asynchronous communication - manager-time != developer-time ‣ Remote-friendly: write everything down MANAGING YOUR MANAGER
6. 2. MENTORING “ANY SUFFICIENTLY ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY IS INDISTINGUISHABLE FROM MAGIC” MANAGING YOUR MANAGER
7. 2. MENTORING ▸ Explain until things are clear - don’t presume and don’t condescend ▸ Somebody might have a different take on the same thing - try to figure out what it is and why ▸ Key question: “Why do you think that?” MANAGING YOUR MANAGER
8. 3. AUTHORITY & POWER MANAGING YOUR MANAGER
9. 3. AUTHORITY & POWER ‣ Power is a relationship ▸ What's your source of authority? ▸ Hierarchy makes you scale MANAGING YOUR MANAGER
10. 4. PRODUCT THINKING MANAGING YOUR MANAGER
11. 4. PRODUCT THINKING ‣ Designers, POs and PMs think of the happy path - you need to think of the edge cases ‣ Always think of the user (be user-friendly) ‣ QA all the things MANAGING YOUR MANAGER
12. 5. SYSTEMS THINKING ‣ Add or improve processes - think of the future, but have urgency in mind ‣ Reduce friction: to automate or not to automate is the question MANAGING YOUR MANAGER
13. 6. BAD MANAGEMENT MANAGING YOUR MANAGER
14. 6. BAD MANAGEMENT ‣ Bad management: accent on hierarchy (title) ‣ Bad manager: accent on your performance ‣ CYA - write all the things! ‣ Learn when to give up: if they don’t recognise your value, then you’re not a good fit MANAGING YOUR MANAGER
15. MANAGING YOUR MANAGER BEING A LEADER (THAT’S NOT A TITLE) If you want the authority, you have to accept the responsibility! ‣ Be consistent - rules are the same for everyone ‣ Most teams have a leader (formal or informal) - which one are you? ‣ Avoid trivial technical arguments - proving your competence is a waste of time
16. 7. LEADING = TEAM BUILDING MANAGING YOUR MANAGER
17. 7. LEADING = TEAM BUILDING ‣ When being a lead, people are your work ‣ Respect other people ‣ Know your team: most people want to do a good job ‣ Consult and delegate work to people who care the most - and trust them ‣ As the most senior person, you should let others choose first ‣ Don’t offer unsolicited help MANAGING YOUR MANAGER
18. 7. LEADING = TEAM BUILDING ‣ Setup processes for soliciting feedback and opinions directly ‣ Encourage copying of useful ideas ‣ Elaborate on other people’s ideas first, criticise later ‣ When an idea fails, that frees you to test other ideas ‣ Get buy-in before executing MANAGING YOUR MANAGER
19. 8. CONFLICT PREVENTION & MITIGATION ‣ Don’t take code reviews personally ‣ Github is not for long discussions - those should be done offline ‣ Propose, don’t order; remind & ask, don’t accuse ‣ There might be multiple good ways to solve a problem ‣ Sometimes people just need to learn and feel things themselves MANAGING YOUR MANAGER
20. 8. CONFLICT PREVENTION & MITIGATION ‣ If you disagree, have the data on your side ‣ Words have different meanings to different people ‣ Don’t insult people - you might be right, but nobody likes an asshole ‣ If you made a mistake, say you’re sorry - and in the same environment ‣ Direct personal contact helps prevent problems and diffuse situations MANAGING YOUR MANAGER
21. 8. CONFLICT PREVENTION & MITIGATION “NOTHING PERSONAL, JUST BUSINESS” ‣ Authority should be clearly communicated ‣ Asserting authority is a double-edged sword - you're damned if you do, you're damned if you don’t ‣ Sometimes it just won’t work: you should be honest about it and escalate MANAGING YOUR MANAGER
22. 9. HOW TO IMPROVE ‣ Practice: volunteer or participate ‣ Observe: watch what people do in meetings ‣ When you learn something new, apply it - and then learn something new again MANAGING YOUR MANAGER
23. 10. THE MEANING OF LIFE ‣ More developers you talk to, more you’ll grow ‣ Thinking of management - are you ok with writing emails and presenting powerpoint all day? MANAGING YOUR MANAGER "TRY AND BE NICE TO PEOPLE, AVOID EATING FAT, READ A GOOD BOOK EVERY NOW AND THEN, GET SOME WALKING IN, AND TRY AND LIVE TOGETHER IN PEACE AND HARMONY WITH PEOPLE OF ALL CREEDS AND NATIONS".
24. FURTHER READING ‣ Gerald M. Weinberg - Becoming a technical leader ‣ Michael Lopp - Managing humans ‣ Jurgen Appelo - Management 3.0: Leading Agile Developers, Developing Agile Leaders MANAGING YOUR MANAGER