We regularly work w/ companies whose manager does not come from a technical background. Lets call him Joe. When the project is successful, we see several traits that make it so:
- Strong math/science background. If Joe comes from such background, it is much easier to come to terms when it comes to task estimation, labor division, disagreement resolution and communication.
- Concise written communication. When Joe describes a feature, he describes it with all its edge cases, leaving zero room for misunderstanding. When Joe describes a bug, he makes it easy for the dev/QA to reproduce it. We have had several instances when the tasks were written with just the most common scenarios. The results were invariably missed deadlines and unhappy teams (both client and dev teams, who ended up working OT for many weeks to meet deadline)
- Understanding/Empathy. When the dev says something is going to take longer than originally estimated, Joe trusts him. Joe must understand estimation is an art, not a science. This is especially handy when a task, at first glance, looks easy but is actually very complex.
- Protection. Joe must protect the tech team from stakeholders. To push against unrealistic deadlines, scope creep, etc. The last thing we want is last min addition, which may lead to critical bugs since we don't have time properly QA that addition. As a rule we now freeze all code 2 weeks before a launch. Those 2 weeks are spent on bug fixing and stabilization only. No additions.
- Curiosity. Joe takes time to understand the basics of software development. He understands things like frontend/backend/APIs. He can even do some simple SQL queries. This wins major brownie points from the devs.
What about you? What traits do you find essential? Let us know and we ll be sure to include them in our next blog.
