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> The best managers I have had were ones who had previously worked as developers. That is not my observation. Having some ability to program can definitely be

> The best managers I have had were ones who had previously worked as developers. That is not my observation. Having some ability to program can definitely be a plus, but it is also frequently a hindrance, if the manager is not aware of the dangers. Best managers I had were just good at managing. They did not try to make technical decisions but instead tried to figure out a process to work with a collection of various experts that would let these experts to make best use of their expertise in context of the project. In other words, they were focused on making right conditions for people, team, project to succeed rather than focusing on making technical decisions. They tried to complement the team with their management expertise rather than trying to be lead developer. Ability to program (as in developer who has just been promoted to management role) is frequently a hindrance. It is a crutch that the new manager uses which prevents him from learning his new trade well. It lets him understand stuff without needing to communicate with the team, it lets him see through bullshit without having to build rapport and honest relationship and it lets him make passable decisions without consent from the rest of the team. Which works fine for a while but in the end tends to result in mediocre manager and team. Also a programmer manager frequently only ever learns to work with other programmers. This might be fine for strictly development team but leaves the manager out of the water when interacting with non-development teams, clients, etc.

silicon2401 5y ago
I've also had a bad experience with a programmer turned manager. He micromanaged to a frustrating degree, almost checking things in as much detail himself as if he was the actual engineer working on the task. Additionally, he had a very hard time adapting his working and communication styles, and instead asked for a lot of things to be done his way or recommended his way instead of understanding and trying to help me with the things I was struggling with, which I always found backwards. My previous manager never even coded, while the manager before that was also still actively developing, and both had a much more personable yet effective style. Everybody has their pros and cons, but I just wanted to agree that being a programmer manager isn't necessarily good or bad.
- lmilcin 5y ago
  Yep. Developer managers tend to pull the team with their development ability (because they have presumably been good at it before they got promoted) at the cost of management practice and focus on the team. This means you are in a fundamentally different team. I have seen it is hard for developers to shed their development skin and become real managers. They might feel they need to prove their ability by being able to make all these decisions or even code themselves. There is probably couple of other things happening. But that also means the team has less development responsibilities because manager will make all most important development decisions. And people who do not have important responsibilities tend to devolve. Now, the world "tend" is everywhere here and it just represents the fact that every manager is different. I just mean this as a general observation from 20 years of working in development in companies like Canal+, HP, Intel, Samsung, Credit Agricole, Credit Suisse, Citi and others. There were better and worse managers and there were definitely some good managers who were developers before.

silicon2401 5y ago

I've also had a bad experience with a programmer turned manager. He micromanaged to a frustrating degree, almost checking things in as much detail himself as if he was the actual engineer working on the task. Additionally, he had a very hard time adapting his working and communication styles, and instead asked for a lot of things to be done his way or recommended his way instead of understanding and trying to help me with the things I was struggling with, which I always found backwards. My previous manager never even coded, while the manager before that was also still actively developing, and both had a much more personable yet effective style. Everybody has their pros and cons, but I just wanted to agree that being a programmer manager isn't necessarily good or bad.

lmilcin 5y ago
Yep. Developer managers tend to pull the team with their development ability (because they have presumably been good at it before they got promoted) at the cost of management practice and focus on the team. This means you are in a fundamentally different team. I have seen it is hard for developers to shed their development skin and become real managers. They might feel they need to prove their ability by being able to make all these decisions or even code themselves. There is probably couple of other things happening. But that also means the team has less development responsibilities because manager will make all most important development decisions. And people who do not have important responsibilities tend to devolve. Now, the world "tend" is everywhere here and it just represents the fact that every manager is different. I just mean this as a general observation from 20 years of working in development in companies like Canal+, HP, Intel, Samsung, Credit Agricole, Credit Suisse, Citi and others. There were better and worse managers and there were definitely some good managers who were developers before.