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Coders are the new managers Ok - so quick thoughts - companies are moving to run all processes on software. software is eating the world and if they are not a

Coders are the new managers Ok - so quick thoughts - companies are moving to run all processes on software. software is eating the world and if they are not already (manufacturing) the essence of a business (core competency) is becoming digitised. that means you need to be a coder to create the core competency, monitoring it or chnage it. Some people will be experts who learn to code, more often it seems coders will learn to be experts (mostly because you cannot create the code if you don't understand the job) (side note I argue that software is a form of literacy so substitute "able to read and write for coder) This leads to a number of issues - the first one here is that managers in say the 1960s bestrode the world, before digitisation one person had to be the nexus for information in order to make day to day decisions. but software replaces that (cf the bank manager replaced with algorithm) and all managers are going that way because it allows more efficient decisions - and so we have the Google manager - not a decision maker but a coach for the real decision makers - coders. which leads us to - management only applies at the level of hiring and firing (i mean if a non coder is telling coders what to write it's already broken). so if you are not the person with hiring / firing / internal team allocation you are not a manager - and if you are and you are not focused on pull requests and automated testing you are doing it wrong Which also leads us to managers are the new VC/investors - funding teams for results.

SamuelAdams 5y ago
Not necessarily. In my current role I am the implementer, and I may have to explain the current behavior of systems to managers. But they ultimately make the decision on what gets changed. I present it as business impact / use cases, they decide what “policy” (non-tech) changes they want to make, and I decide how to technically best implement that considering the existing design and new changes.
- lifeisstillgood 5y ago
  meh. That's like "artists impression" view on a building and actually what gets built. What gets built matters. It's all that matters. And anyone who says "i built this building" when they were the one who pointed at a set of different artists impressions is frankly deluded. (I have my inner socialist rearing up inside !) more conciliatory, we all try to pay lip service to "business" in charge and "business decisions" that is less and less a reality - the policies are in code. Read the code, don't pretend the powerpoint based on the meeting based on the comments in the code will get you an understanding Edit: ok more conciliatory- there is always going to be politics, so there is always debate amoung voters (employees? stakeholders?) and there are always politicians holding a manifesto of changes - but that person (manager) should be able to read the code and understand the implications of the different changes which also nearly follows to my next great idea - vote for policies in a company which is same as vote for executives, Let's make annual baord elections binding and competitive :-)

SamuelAdams 5y ago

Not necessarily. In my current role I am the implementer, and I may have to explain the current behavior of systems to managers. But they ultimately make the decision on what gets changed. I present it as business impact / use cases, they decide what “policy” (non-tech) changes they want to make, and I decide how to technically best implement that considering the existing design and new changes.

lifeisstillgood 5y ago
meh. That's like "artists impression" view on a building and actually what gets built. What gets built matters. It's all that matters. And anyone who says "i built this building" when they were the one who pointed at a set of different artists impressions is frankly deluded. (I have my inner socialist rearing up inside !) more conciliatory, we all try to pay lip service to "business" in charge and "business decisions" that is less and less a reality - the policies are in code. Read the code, don't pretend the powerpoint based on the meeting based on the comments in the code will get you an understanding Edit: ok more conciliatory- there is always going to be politics, so there is always debate amoung voters (employees? stakeholders?) and there are always politicians holding a manifesto of changes - but that person (manager) should be able to read the code and understand the implications of the different changes which also nearly follows to my next great idea - vote for policies in a company which is same as vote for executives, Let's make annual baord elections binding and competitive :-)