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

Engineering leadership style archetypes

Most of us have had at least some exposure to the vast world of thought on modern engineering leadership styles and their best practices. There are seemingly endless sources presenting sets of leadership styles for engineering managers. It can be overwhelming to dig through this information. How can we approach these styles with intention and avoid just adopting whatever feels easiest?

In this section, we will learn what defines classic engineering leadership styles and in which circumstances they are most useful. You will learn how to look at these styles as a continuum instead of distinct personas. You will learn how to approach these styles as sets of practices that can be layered together to form a comprehensive style of your own, suitable to the needs of your engineering team.

To that aim, this section is broken down to compare and contrast leadership styles in the following subsections:

  • The commander and the servant
  • The...