So, many of these I agree with, but not this one: "Hire managers that cannot build software". Managers that cannot build software are, in my experience, just a

So, many of these I agree with, but not this one: "Hire managers that cannot build software". Managers that cannot build software are, in my experience, just as likely to be good (or bad) managers as managers that were good programmers. Managers who used to be programmers are sometimes clueless, and aggressively so, about people skills. While it is possible to manage programmers well without programming skills, if you work at it, I don't believe it is possible to manage programmers (or anybody else) well without people skills. Software managers who were never programmers _know_ they don't know about programming, and understand that this gives them some blind spots, so they are often willing to take constructive, professional, tactfully given hints on that. Software managers that were programmers, in some cases, not only don't have people skills, they don't think people skills are important or useful, and they don't try to get better. Not saying former programmers _cannot_ be good managers, I've seen some that are. But I don't think non-programmers are, on balance, less likely to be good at managing software development, because they know what they don't know, and managers who were formerly programmers often don't.