Ten Software Engineering Managers

Engineering management from the perspective of the managed.

I have worked in the software industry for many years. Working in both the public and private sectors as an individual contributor software developer, SRE and cloud engineer. 
Along the way I have been managed by 15 different managers, along with having work interactions with around another 100. So naming no names I thought maybe it is worth distilling my managed life into a set of software manager caricatures.

To illustrate what makes a good software manager (and a bad one).

I accept that since I have never chosen to become one, then I am criticising a skill I have shown no interest in acquiring myself. I have only partially dabbled in it, via senior IC roles, ie Staff Engineer technical advocacy. However it is a good chance to let off steam ... and possibly a software manager may read this and reflect on which characteristics they may want to work on. So guys its time for your 360!

Remote managers are better

Having worked for many years in offices with my manager sat at the desk behind me, literally looking over my shoulder. I should probably also admit that in recent years I have chosen to work full time remote, ideally with my manager in another time zone, or at least another country. Luckily I got on with those managers that were literally breathing down my neck. But it certainly didn't help me get the job done.

Full time remote is probably not so good an option for those who are just starting their career. However for established engineers it does tend to insulate you from the various forms of toxic management out there and lets you get on with the job. It also requires you to be more explicit about the engineering process, collaboration and documentation, and hence be more productive in a more maintainable manner.

Bullying, micro-management, under-mining, overly personal etc. Although these can all still happen in front of colleagues on Slack and Zoom. But it is easier to shut down a conversation and walk away virtually so that the manager has time to calm down and control their behaviour. 

Manager's skilled at managing remote international teams have to be skilled at targeted succinct and effective communication. Especially if they only have a few hours in the day when the team members time zones overlap. 

So on average I have found remote managers to be better managers. Although that may just be that the UK is renowned for bad management - both anecdotally and in terms of the UK's productivity ranking. So managers that are from more productive countries than the UK are likely to be from a better management culture - hence better managers.

Peer level managers are better

In a traditional hierarchical organisation. The CTO is the most senior manager and so remunerates people more who are managers like themselves. So particularly in the public sector there is an unwritten rule that even the most junior manager must be paid more than the most senior engineer.

This approach naturally leads to some rancour amongst senior technical staff who want to stay technical. It also devalues technical skills. Since to increase their salary technical staff must eventually give up all their years of technical skills and somehow gain 10 years of skill in people management overnight. Of course this doesn't happen so instead you get very novice people managers with a lot of largely irrelevant technical skills, and perhaps a personality totally unsuited to enabling their team.

It is easy to filter out such an organisation. Just get on one of the company feedback sites, eg. Glassdoor, Fishbowl etc. Check what the top IC engineers salary range is and check that it is higher than the junior management range. Ideally you should expect the top IC grade, eg. senior technical architect to be paid around 50% more than an engineering manager. But take it as a red flag if there is no technical grade that is paid more than any management grade.

Because it means the organisation doesn't value your engineering skills, and you are likely to be managed by someone who doesn't value them either and may regard themselves as your superior. So why would you work there? Surely better to work for a manager who treats you as a peer in an organisation that values your skillset.

Most people quit their job because they have a bad manager

The surveys tell us 43% leave their job because of a bad manager. With the next most important reason being general toxic culture / under appreciation. Whilst pay and progression comes in third.

We all want to get the number 1 manager, but unfortunately we often end up with 10.

So most people leave their jobs because of getting one of the bottom ranked manager types.

HR's job is to minimize disruption to the company, they will tend to take the side of the more senior employee unless that employee's behaviour is clearly proven to be detrimental on the wider scale to the organisation.

A few junior employees reporting them for incompetence or abusive behaviour, does not usually qualify.

So if you do complain then it is unlikely to improve the situation, and may well make it worse if the manager is informed that you complained about them. Sadly I have not personally heard of any case where complaints about bad management resulted in resolving a problem, but definitely have heard of cases where it made it a lot worse for the remaining time before the complainant's notice period was done.

So unless a more senior member of your organisation is on your side, and decides to deal with the problem manager. It is best to leave your job if you have a bad manager. For a big company that may just mean changing departments. But leaving your job is safest in terms of removing yourself from a toxic environment, plus you can honestly report the manager as being the reason for leaving in your exit survey. It is a chance for you to help your ex-employer, you shouldn't expect them to act upon it immediately. But given a sufficiently high attrition rate for a manager's team, the higher level managers should hopefully have enough sense and self interest to deal with their failing colleague.

Ten Software Managers

1. The Enabler 

The ideal technical manager is the enabler. They have better personal skills than software skills.
They are most likely to either have never been an engineer, ie they entered the industry as a professional technical manager. Or they were an engineer some years ago but are more interested in the people than the code so changed direction fairly early into their career.
They will be well aware of the wider environment of the organisation and the stakeholders and drivers for the technical work. A great communicator. With knowledge of all the systems and processes and so how to unblock things and get stuff done procedurally. Plus be a talented scrum master.
 

Most likely to say:  How should we fix that process for you?

Catchphrase: Thanks for your contribution 😊

2. The Big Cheese

You may find at some point in your career you get a manager who is actually a much more senior person in the organisation than their surface role as an engineering team manager. Maybe they founded the whole company, or they are the head of large department with other non-software engineering work.

To be high in the organisation they are likely to be a better manager than the average manager you might expect, with great people skills.

(Obviously this rule may not hold once you get to CEO level, I hope nobody who ended up with Elon Musk as their direct line manager is reading this ... although I don't think he was interested enough in software to directly manage software engineers, given he gave up coding at 20 before getting any formal training in it.)

They are likely to be more of a leader than a manager, but likely to be particularly good at fostering the development of their engineers. They are also going to have all the contacts to unblock any issue that may arise, plus have their finger on the pulse of high level changes and strategy that may impact your job.

They may still have a surprising high level of technical understanding of the company's software, but as a senior manager they also understand that their job is all about enabling an even higher level of understanding, and technical decision making about it, in their engineers.

On the down side, they probably don't actually have that much time to devote to you personally, so don't be surprised if they fail to act on things you have suggested to them. If there is any issue they make damn sure somebody in the team takes responsibility for sorting it out. So be prepared to be volunteered by them.

Most likely to say: How are you aiming to progress in the company?

Catchphrase: Isn't it amazing what we are building at (fill in organisation name)? 🏆

3. The Bro 

They were happily doing their engineering job when the manager for their team left. They were not necessarily the most technical member of the team, but they were the one who got on with everyone and the one that everyone in the team was happy enough to have as a manager. So they took the job.

They want to be you best friend and genuinely aim to protect you as a member of their team from problems or issues that are coming down from higher up the management hierarchy.

They are reasonably technically aware and skilled, but don't try to make the technical decisions or deal with issues unless nobody in the team steps up to the plate, then they take the task on themselves.

They are just one of the gang, but your manager too.

Most likely to say: Let me buy you a beer ... umm, sorry, everyone in the team has been made redundant.

Catchphrase: Yeah, what the hell are management up to 🍻

4. The Middle Manager

They used to be a techie, many years ago, but they weren't really interested in tech and hence were probably pretty mediocre at their job. But thankfully they got on the management track, result! They love the politics and intrigue of management way more than technical details. They have good people skills but find it hard to hide the fact they have absolutely no emotional investment or interest in technology.

They literally couldn't care less if the head of the organisation declared that from this day forth all software in the company will be written in Cobol and all open source was banned from use. If that is what their boss says, then their job is to listen to their team moan and complain about it. Then tell them that is what they will be using. Since any technical objections the team gives are meaningless to them.

On the plus side they do not micro-manage and they appreciate their team members skills, and are good at bringing those skills out.

The middle manager likes people and wants to please them. But knows that their job is only to please their superiors. From their team they just need compliance, and being good at their job is all about bringing their team onside, with whatever the higher ups require. However outlandish.

Most likely to say: Sorry it wasn't my choice, but come on, we need to get on with it.

Catchphrase: I raised your issue with senior management, but no go. 😢

5. The Invisible Man

The invisible man works in a big organisation and knows the value of his super power. He used to do a bit of useful work, but that was years ago, when he still took enough interest in his job to get to the bottom rung of the management ladder. But over the years he realised he could get away with doing less and less actual work. He mastered quiet quitting years ago, before it became a thing. 

Since then he (and his boss) has worked out that if he gets a team of reasonably senior self starter engineers, then they don't actually like or want to be managed. So a difficult opinionated team for some managers, are actually perfect for the invisible man. Ideally if they are a distributed team, then he can "manage" them remotely, with the minimum level of work. Send the odd email maybe, do one or two Zoom calls a week and his work is done.

His team may not respect him, they may even play jokes on him. But he so doesn't give a crap about work that he won't even notice them doing it. As a manager the invisible man is the mid-point of the top 10.

He is neither a good or bad manager, he is like having no manager at all. He will never support, challenge or rebuke you. At least nobody every quits their job because they have the invisible man as their manager.

Most likely to say: Sorry just had to step out for a minute.

Catchphrase: Keep up the good work guys. 👻

6. The Over Employed

The over employed is a people pleaser. They like to say yes to everyone, including their managers and their team. They like to be seen dashing about doing things. So sure they will do that for you tomorrow ... but tomorrow never comes! Because the over employed is too busy. They may even have got themselves a second job on the sly, thinking they can juggle both at once. They are such an optimist, of course it will work out. 

They carry on saying yes to all those tasks that you need them to get done, to unblock your work. Just as they do to everybody else. So sure, they will sort out your performance review. Talk to the other manager that you need info from. But somehow they never seem able to deliver on time, if at all.

They will be there at 3am the night before a major deadline, chucking something together that is not quite finished and misses some vital component. But it is good enough, should do what is needed.

Poor people pleaser working their arse off to please people, so why is nobody that pleased with them?
But they stay cheerful,  not going to let those moaners drag them down.
Oh well if colleagues get too annoying they can always bail out. Get a job somewhere else and leave behind all those trivial little tasks that people kept bugging them with.

Most likely to say: Yes sure, I will do that.

Catchphrase: Hiya guys, why the long faces? 🤯

7. The Team Player

For the engineers in their team the Team Player is one of the best bosses they have had. They always have their back, supports them and persuades those above him to funnel more resources and authority to their team.

They are ambitious and aiming to rise higher up the management tree, but loyal to their guys. They know their team is really the only one in engineering that is run properly. It is also the one doing the work that matters. They makes sure they sweet talks those above them and dedicates a reasonable portion of their time to making sure they know that they and their team are the keystone keeping the organisation running.

They know that anybody looking to advance their career should be spending a good portion of each working day working on their own personal advancement. Don't be the fool who spends all day every day just doing the organisation's work.

Unfortunately their highly competitive nature and self belief, can lead to self delusion. They start to believe their own self promotional narrative. This leads them to be contemptuous of those annoying flakes in other teams who are not doing anything of real value. Though generally energetic and positive those outside their circle and below their grade, get the aggressive, bullying, dismissive and unpleasant side.

This behaviour also distorts the true importance and funding that the organisation should be devoting to their team's remit, to the detriment of other areas. So can cause problems for the company as a whole, as well as for morale outside of their team.

Most likely to say: My team has got that, we will save the day.

Catchphrase: Get out of my way, unlike you, I have a real job to do. 💪

8. The Bureaucrat

Once upon a time, long long ago. Some software companies decided they wanted to sell their wares to the ancient hierarchical institutions of government and learning. Those institutions believed in traditions and rules and processes and making things quantifiable. So something that did that for software management was perfect. So the companies came up with traditional names signifying regal wealth and power - Prince. Along with naming their software, Enterprise software, signifying new, wealth generating and boldly taking the initiative. That was in the 1980s.

It was the perfect sales pitch for these outdated institutions and they bought into it wholesale. Although it took them about 25 years to get around to it, old institutions are like that.

So their procurement processes and software and its life cycle and management were bound into reams and reams of bureaucratic processes. The IT managers in those institutions were groomed in the ways of Prince 2 and ERP and ITIL and all the rest of the snake oil the companies had invented. They devoted all their money and time to the training and meetings and processes around it. 

As far as the engineers in those institutions were concerned, a few of the processes were useful but that was far out weighed by the whole bureaucratic burden and costs they were wrapped in.

The manager spoke at length for years at far too many meetings of the process and the newly procured systems, but unfortunately the quality and features of the institutions systems seemed to have gotten worse. Whilst the cost of them became much much greater.
The institution employed more and more managers, although they just managed projects not people. But eventually there was so many, they needed managers for them too.
But they hired no more engineers.
Eventually the institution decided it didn't really need any in house software engineers at all, why were they writing software when they should be buying proper Enterprise software from the companies?

So the engineer realised they had to leave the kingdom of the Prince 2 and its manager and go to live in a different place altogether, where their business was making software. Strangely in the software republic they had never even heard of Prince 2. They vaguely knew of PMP, but nobody in their right mind would use it to make or manage software.  

Most likely to say: I am sorry I cannot talk to you, until you have filed a change request.

Catchphrase: Our KPIs show that we are on course for all our CSFs 👑

9. The Technical Superior

The technical superior is at least a grade or two above you and always interacts with you as your superior.

They were an engineer and still secretly preferred being an engineer to their current job. They were never the best technical engineer in a team, so they compensated for that by imagining they were the best at seeing the big picture engineering wise and still are. So they decided to become a manager to make sure the right technical decisions are made.

 
They probably preferred their old job because they didn't have to spend so much time on politics and relating to people. They have been a full time manager for at least 5 years and their technical knowledge and judgement have dated badly. However they still see themselves as the person most qualified to make technical decisions. The more senior they become, the more out of date their technical knowledge becomes, yet the bigger and more expensive are the technical choices they make for their organisation. 

Most likely to say: Never ask a bunch of developers to decide on technology, ask 5 and you get 5 different answers.
Catchphrase: We really need a big monolithic Java XML SOAP web service to do that. 🙈

10. The Rockstar Techie

The very worst engineering manager is the rockstar techie.

Rockstar techies have great technical skills and may have technically saved the day a few times for senior management. So their lack of personal skills are overlooked, and they tend to behave better to people above them in the management hierarchy anyway.

But in the long term they are damaging to the quality of your codebase, the more senior they become the more damage they do. So the common technical issues they can cause are blocking devolution of architectural decisions and diverse input into them. Possessiveness over code, or technical knowledge. Wanting to be the saviour for technical problems, outages etc. 

However the damage they do to the code is minor compared to the huge damage they do to the engineering team and culture if they are put in a management position.

They were often the most senior technical engineer in their part of the company. They have probably been there a while and to justify getting another pay rise they got lumped with doing management too. They regard management as an annoying burden tacked on to the side of their real engineering job. They aim to remain the lead engineer in the team and make all the final technical decisions. They cannot devolve technical authority and have no interest in picking up any management skills. So are most likely to exhibit basic level fails in terms of interpersonal skills, have a technical superiority complex, be rude, moody, bullying, micro manage etc.

 
As time goes on they must devote more and more time to management and yet cannot accept no longer being the most technically adept guy in the room. A paradox that can only be solved by driving away any members of staff who challenge them technically and effectively dumbing down the technical skills of the whole team.

Most like to say: You Fffing broke it you moron, when coming across a feature change implemented in a way they didn't expect.

Catchphrase: You are wrong, this is how it must be done, idiot 👹

(Any resemblance to persons living or dead is purely coincidental)