"On this project, I have a de-facto role of a software team leader. Before, I've always been just a coder, not responsible for others."
This is probably the most common problem anyone faces in development projects as they move up the food chain. I hate to say it, but you set yourself up for this by putting yourself in a leading position, but letting yourself get sucked into the technology and ignoring the coding progress of the rest of the team.
Unfortunately, for many people inertia is a state of mind and unless someone is looking over their shoulder stuff just doesn't get done. Without someone acting as the control and center, it looks like the rest of the team spent their time reading slashdot...
Personally, I think in this case you will just have to suck it up - and do the work yourself. From a corporate point of view, just make sure that you make it clear that you were the team leader here and responsible for the job getting done (unless it crashes and burns).
Notch it up as a learning experience and remember next time that your management part of the task is (here comes some heresy..) MORE important than your programming if the team is larger than three people. The larger your team, the less important your own programming contribution becomes if you are the team leader - especially if your experience is greater than the rest of the team!
Slashdot Mirror
"On this project, I have a de-facto role of a software team leader. Before, I've always been just a coder, not responsible for others." This is probably the most common problem anyone faces in development projects as they move up the food chain. I hate to say it, but you set yourself up for this by putting yourself in a leading position, but letting yourself get sucked into the technology and ignoring the coding progress of the rest of the team. Unfortunately, for many people inertia is a state of mind and unless someone is looking over their shoulder stuff just doesn't get done. Without someone acting as the control and center, it looks like the rest of the team spent their time reading slashdot... Personally, I think in this case you will just have to suck it up - and do the work yourself. From a corporate point of view, just make sure that you make it clear that you were the team leader here and responsible for the job getting done (unless it crashes and burns). Notch it up as a learning experience and remember next time that your management part of the task is (here comes some heresy..) MORE important than your programming if the team is larger than three people. The larger your team, the less important your own programming contribution becomes if you are the team leader - especially if your experience is greater than the rest of the team!