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

Managing a large team

When your business grows and your team grows, you may eventually find yourself managing a much larger team. Growth on your team can be very exciting as it helps you grow your skill set as a manager. It can also be challenging when the processes and techniques that you have implemented to manage your team begin to lose some of their effectiveness.

When your team grows beyond a certain size, your methods of management will need to change. Generally speaking, the ideal number of direct reports is five to seven (see Chapter 16 for more on this). When you exceed seven direct reports, it is very difficult to give the members of your team adequate time. This effect is somewhat modulated when your team grows slowly, so you have time to develop trust and shorthand with your team members before your team is larger, but it can be very pronounced when your team grows quickly.

As your team grows, it is also important to be aware that productivity does not scale linearly...