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

Communicating with Authority

For engineering managers, communication is a topic that is relevant to nearly every aspect of our work. From talking with our teams and working with stakeholders to how we name software packages and variables, the need for clear and thoughtful communication is present in everything we do. A firm understanding of best practices in communication is important for every engineering manager.

Communication is one of the few force multipliers in leadership. The same series of events, when communicated well or poorly, will produce vastly different outcomes for individuals and teams. Language has the power to motivate, encourage, convince, contextualize, or simplify. It can prevent, avoid, or resolve a difficult problem. Or if it is not used well, it may cause misunderstandings, division, frustration, and anger. There is no exaggeration when stating that poor communication can lead teams to ruin and lose them the support of their stakeholders and leadership....