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 changes in priorities

As new information becomes available, priorities change. Generally, it is a good thing to have flexibility in prioritization to respond to changes and course-correct. However, sometimes, the degree of change may become excessive, and the source of change can feel less like “new information” and more like “the inability to make up one’s mind.” Excessive changes in priorities may become frustrating to engineering teams when they cannot get clarity on what they are meant to be working on. When priority changes become more representative of a lack of commitment or lack of focus, this can signal that it is time for an engineering manager to investigate.

Churn in software development refers to how often something is overwritten or changed. To get a handle on priority churn, start by looking at the context and the prioritization dynamics, and then use that information to determine how to address the situation.

Prioritization...