Re: Managing Engineers

[Bruce Byfield <bbyfield -at- axionet -dot- com>]

Andrew Plato wrote:
> 
> This was a good question from a person in private mail. I am stripping out the
> person's name to respect her privacy.
> 
> We were discussing how to handle the never-ending amount of changes that
> developers make to a product.

[snip]

To add to Andrew's very useful summary:

- Engineers frequently have a mail list or IRC channel for
discussing their work. Subscribe to these lists at all costs. If
you're new to the technology or don't know the basics of
programming, you may not understand everything that's on the list,
but you will be better informed. Often, much more discussion occurs
on the list or channel than at meetings, partly because geeks prefer
to use technology rather than meet, and partly because, at many
companies, at least some of the coders keep irregular hours. I
learned this basic fact the hard way during my first week at a
company. After a few days, I wondered why the coders never said
anything. In fact, they were discussing up a storm - but via e-mail.

- Get the chip off your shoulder: Many people on this list seem to
regard the geeks as enemies, whose main purpose is to keep writers
from reaching their god-appointed goals. This division occurs in bad
companies, or when the geeks are insecure, but it's two-way: so long
as you regard the coders as enemies, they're more likely to return
the feeling. Since they usually outnumber the writers, and sometimes
have less personal skills, it may be up to you to make the first
move. Be respectful of the geek's expertise and their time, and show
them that writers are useful, and you're far more likely to build a
team. You may have to prove to them that they need to treat you the
same way in return, or slap down the obnoxious, but don't go into a
situation expecting trouble, or you may collide with a
self-fulfilling prophecy.

- Understand that you're living in a meritocracy of knowledge: If
you want coopoeration from an engineer, demonstrate your competence.
Your competence is mainly in writing, publishing, and related
fields, but it's also in your knowledge of what the engineers are
doing. That's not to say that you have to be an expert in the code
that's being written, especially not right away. But it helps to
demonstrate that you're a good learner by the intelligent questions
you ask. Making suggestions about interfaces, or doing some QA
testing is also useful for demonstrating that you're worthy of
respect. And, in this arena, you're not much different from a new
programmer. Everyone who enters the geek world has to prove their
worth, even (or especially) bosses. 

For example, at one company I know, the CEO is an ex-programmer a
few years older than the programmers. At first, the programmers
thought he was rather past it. However, when he pitched in to help
with QA (the company was a startup), he was so thorough that the
programmers realized that his effectiveness could only be due to an
intimate knowledge of programming. Now, his testing is the benchmark
for everything that goes out the door; "The CEO couldn't break it,
so it's ready to go" is a common remark.


-- 
Bruce Byfield, Outlaw Communications
Contributing Editor, Maximum Linux
604.421.7189 bbyfield -at- axionet -dot- com

"In inclement weather, the people are fey,
With three thousand year old stories as the night slips away,
Remembering, Fingol feels not far away,
The giant will rise with the moon."
-Stan Roger, "The Giant"

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