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

Scenario 2—You enable a narcissistic engineering culture

An engineering manager takes on the leadership of an engineering team. The team is skilled, effective, and efficient, and the manager is happy to lead such a capable team. The manager gets to work supporting and empowering the team. The engineering team is tight-knit; they enjoy each other’s company and make challenging work fun with comradery and jokes. Sometimes, the manager notices that their team’s jokes are at the expense of other teams within the company—for instance, the design team, the product team, the analytics team, or the business development team. Don’t even get them started on the marketing team. The manager thinks this is harmless—after all, they aren’t hurting anyone or being directly rude—so they ignore it and let the team have their fun. Gradually, the engineering team’s lighthearted jokes evolve into cemented opinions. The design team is annoying...