Book Image

Engineering Manager's Handbook

By : Morgan Evans
Book Image

Engineering Manager's Handbook

By: Morgan Evans

Overview of this book

Delightful and customer-centric digital products have become an expectation in the world of business. Engineering managers are uniquely positioned to impact the success of these products and the software systems that power them. Skillful managers guide their teams and companies to develop functional and maintainable systems. This book helps you find your footing as an engineering manager, develop your leadership style, balance your time between engineering and managing, build successful engineering teams in different settings, and work within constraints without sacrificing technical standards or team empathy. You’ll learn practical techniques for establishing trust, developing beneficial habits, and creating a cohesive and high-performing engineering team. You’ll discover effective strategies to guide and contribute to your team’s efforts, facilitating productivity and collaboration. By the end of this book, you’ll have the tools and knowledge necessary to thrive as an engineering manager. Whether you’re just starting out in your role or seeking to enhance your leadership capabilities, this handbook will empower you to make a lasting impact and drive success in your organization.
Table of Contents (24 chapters)
1
Part 1: The Case for Engineering Management
5
Part 2: Engineering
9
Part 3: Managing
15
Part 4: Transitioning
19
Part 5: Long-Term Strategies

Difficult partnerships

From time to time, all engineering managers and their teams will find themselves faced with a difficult cross-functional partnership. Despite our best efforts and careful practices, not everyone will respond to us in the way we hope they will. Since we usually do not have the luxury of picking our cross-functional partners, it is an important skill to be able to overcome these situations and find ways to continue to do our best work. When you are faced with a difficult cross-functional partnership, follow these steps.

Make your manager aware

It’s a good practice to keep your manager broadly aware of everything you are working on and specifically of the challenges you are facing in your cross-functional teams. This is not to cast blame or ask for help, but instead to give them a warning that you see a dynamic happening that is not ideal and that you are working on it. This allows your manager to have insight into the efforts you are putting forth...