Slashdot Mirror
Transitioning From Developer To Management?
An anonymous reader writes "After 15+ years as a code monkey, mostly doing back-end systems design / development, I was surprised by recent developments at my workplace that have resulted in my being transitioned into a dual architect / managerial role within the next few weeks. While I am somewhat confident at this point in my career in my experience and training for an architect-type position, I have serious concerns about being able to properly fulfill the role as manager. Aside from 'Become a manager in 2 days' type books, what resources would you recommend I look to for guidance in this transition?"
>> what resources would you recommend I look to for guidance in this transition
A comb for the pointy-hair on the sides of your head and wax for the shinny top.
Lindsay Blanton
RadioReference.com
"How to Win Friends and Influence People"...it's a cheezy title, but an awesome book!
Ever heard the saying "people are promoted to the level of their own incompetence"? Unless you're comfortable with a management job I would strongly recommend you *NOT* take it. You're right in doing some research and self-education before accepting the job, but while you study up keep asking yourself "do I REALLY want to do this?"
It will come from the people to manage.
Always listen to them and hear what they're telling you.
1. Treat others as you would expect to be treated
2. Never assume that anyone has nothing to add to a conversation
3. Keep your shit together; be organized.
4. Realize that even if you follow the above rules there will be politics and CYA that will make you miserable from time to time.
Seriously though, once you've semi-transitioned into a management position, don't expect to have any time to do any other work during normal hours.
You'll spend 120% of your time in meetings, doing paperwork, reporting on issues to upper management, delivering managements responses to underlings and never have a moment to yourself.
You'll find yourself doing your own tasks after that, so that a normal 40 hour week will become a normal 60 to 80 hour week, and you'll still feel like you're falling behind.
Who is general failure, and why is he reading my hard drive?
Take some time to reflect on the managers you've had experience with. List the good and bad traits they had. Think about the hard decisions they made well and the ones they made poorly. Then see how you think your style of management can benefit from those lessons. (This assumes you have already thought about your style of management, otherwise that is step one.)
As a convert from the front lines of IT (Mainframe operation and network engineering) to management, there are a few things that will help. One, remember - management is more about people skills than technical expertise. This is NOT to say that you will not be amiss to keep your development skills up to snuff. Being able to speak engineer will make you a more suitable manager, as that will be one less barrier for you to cross that other management types will have to scale.
Leaping in does work for some people - but if your company has tuition reimbursement, I would seriously recommend taking management courses in a college environment. While a lot of people seem to think that management is a snap - there is things that seasoned professionals and professors can teach you that will keep you a step ahead of common pitfalls of entry-level managerial work.
If you really MUST do it solo, you could look into obtaining a list of books used in a Business Administration program and seek to study them in your own time. Many have valuable insight into little encountered tid-bits that might not seem valuable at the time - but can crop up at the strangest times and places.
And remember - it's an art as well as a science. A good rounded education will allow you to relate to the more human aspect of management versus the technical part of the development career path you held.
Find managers who have styles that you like and respond well to, that have teams that are regarded as highly effective, and that have good reputations with other management types. Talk to them, learn from them, as them for advice. When I transitioned from desktop support to management, I talked to my father (who worked his way up in the glass industry from apprentice to Executive VP, and knew nothing about computers). Learned a ton, and it's helped me greatly.
Also, don't be afraid of asking your upline for guidance and direction. He/she will know that this is your first foray into management, and if they're any good at all, will expect you to ask questions. It's not a sign of weakness to ask when you don't know something.
Finally, think about the bosses you've had over the course of your career. Do the things you liked them doing, avoid the things you didn't like. This is one of the best ways to find what your own management style is.
Project+ and CAPM are geared towards your need, with the PMP focused more towards very well-seasoned project managers.
I just recently became a lead and know from the projects I've worked on, that I would be a better manager. So I'm finally doing something about it and pursuing the project management path. I just picked up the All-in-One CAPM/PMP exam guide and the recommended study path for the CAPM is a month. As with most jobs you'll learn the bulk from doing it, but the cert won't hurt and may give you the jump start and mind set to help you get started.
some folks love certs and some hate them, but I've never had issue with getting them and I've always learned a few things along the way no matter how well I thought I knew a particular topic.
Creationists are a lot like zombies. Slow, but powerful and numerous. And they all want to eat our brains.
Do whatever the little white dog tells you to do.
Actually, I would Scott Adams' "serious" books: The Dilbert Principle and Way of the Weasel are pretty good explanations of why managers act the way they do. Your typical PHB usually has very good business reasons for the stupid things he does, but since he's technically incompetent, he'll attempt to achieve these valid business goals by means that are unlikely at best, and impossible at worst.
Witness our earlier Slashdot thread about a judge not knowing that "storing" logs in RAM is fundamentally different than "storing" logs on disk. She's got a good legal reason to expect that when someone is told to "turn over the logs", that they turn over all the logs. But because she's an idiot, she's very angry and confused when she finds out that RAM just. doesn't. work. like. that.
Your advantage is that you've got the technical background; the Adams books will explain good (techie) management skills in language that you can use with fellow PHBs. Tell your fellow managers "I make sure my employees can leave by 5pm", and they'll wonder why you're harboring a bunch of slackers. But if you phrase it as "if my employees can't get their work done by 5, then the fault is with our management/scheduling/business processes, so let's, as managers, figure out how to improve those processes", and all of a sudden the PHBs love it.
PHBs are funny that way. As soon as it sounds like it's their idea, they love it. Your job, as a non-pointy-haired boss, is to make sure that the ideas your fellow PHBs "love" will be good ones.
Good resources for you:
Some tips:
YMMV, and good luck!
Dude, no one gives a shit about you life.
Nobody gives a shit about your comment.
Don't speak for the rest of us, particularly when you don't have the minimal courage required to associate your whining comment with a Slashdot handle. Counterpunchers like you a dime a dozen. Talk when you have something useful to contribute. Otherwise, shut your yap. You may learn something.
Read the EFF's Fair Use FAQ
As an engineer / architect who has had to deal with some frustrating management (most of it indirect, fortunately), I've found these two blogs to be both enlightening and useful for feeding to managers. Rands especially, as a developer who moved into management with a purpose, has some very insightful commentary. He's also recently published a book, which I'm planning on giving to some of my favorite managers (who despite their sincere desire to treat us well, sometimes have a hard time understanding the geeks they herd.)
f tware-Engineering/dp/159059844X)
Rands on Management: http://www.randsinrepose.com/cat_management.html
Rands's Book: http://managinghumans.com/ (Direct to Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Managing-Humans-Humorous-So
Joel on Software: http://www.joelonsoftware.com/
Good luck! It's great to hear about people who care enough to want to do it right.
I don't think people are giving the judge enough credit. The ruling doesn't say that every single thing that was put in RAM needs to be produced or recorded. The ruling was over a request that FUTURE connections be logged. The company tried to argue that they shouldn't be compelled to log connections because the connection information was only normally in RAM and not written to disk. The judge called that bullshit, and the judge was right - just because you don't write something to disk doesn't mean it's unreasonable to write it to disk.
Now, if the judge ordered the production of items that HAD BEEN in RAM, or ordered that EVERYTHING in RAM was logged, then you'd be right to complain, but that isn't what the judge said. A small set of data was asked for, and 'it's only in RAM' was correctly not accepted as an excuse to not be able to follow the order.
paintball
The best managers reasise that employees don't work "for them", but instead they work for the employees, helping get rid of obstacles so that the employees can give of their best.
Engineering is the art of compromise.
I had this really stupid class in college called "Organizational Behavior". To this day, I still don't know what I was supposed to learn in that class. Despite the class being boring and pointless, the professor was actually a very interesting guy. He said something one time that always stuck with me: "Leadership is the reduction of uncertainty."
Damn. I took a similar class. The main things I remember is that "competent employees are promoted until they become uncompetent" and "It is more advantageous to have a technical person doing technical work and an incompetent person doing mangerial work instead of vice-versa".