Re: Do I Really Need A Supervisor?

[duncan@injersey.com]

> A first line engineering manager does *not* have to be technically
> great but needs a good general understanding of the relavant technologies

A speaker at our local ACM chapter was discussing this very issue last evening.
He suggested that having a manager who THINKS s/he is technically astute, but
who is not, is the worst situation.  This is followed by the manager who is
astute and likes to debate with the leads on the project about such issues
while the project mangament gets second billing.  Finally, there is the man-
ager who is not technically astute, knows it, and develops a trust relationship
with the lead folks who are knowledgable and sees to their "care and feeding"
as part of the project management effort.

This discussion was not restricted to software-only projects and the speaker
indicated the latter is what he has preferred throughout his career and how he
behaves in his role as a VP of project planning/management for his firm.

> and of good engineering practices.

The discussion did not make a distinction between specific technology and general
engineering knowledge, but I would say a manager should have the latter more than
the former since managing projects (and the people associated with them) does re-
quire more than just "people skills."  However, I do agree with the speaker that
it does not require a person who can do the individual technical jobs.

There is a danger in the latter if the manager, besides not being able to do the
technical work, is also not good with people and/or engineering knowledge of any
kind.

At the recent SEPG Conference, Rick Selby spoke about his work with Microsoft
and noted that first-line managers there are expected to develop code.  But I
gathered that the project/feature groups there are all very small (<10 people
including associated test personnel) and that project management is rather informal
anyway.