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

Principles of communication

There are numerous writings and studies on how to communicate effectively. Our focus is on what aspects of communication are important for engineering managers to understand and master. To understand what we need to know about communication to produce the best outcomes, let’s examine how and why we set expectations, assume the best, say no with care, have an audience perspective, maintain authenticity, and give feedback with radical candor.

Setting expectations

The underlying cause of most frustration and conflict can be traced back to an expectation mismatch. In other words, when what we believe turns out to be false or is not upheld by those around us, it is almost always an upsetting moment. For example, if you believe elevator riders should be given room to exit before new riders get on and other riders don’t respect that expectation, you are likely to be annoyed by the exchange because your expectations are not being upheld. In these...