Become an Effective Software Engineering Manager

Management Track

You guessed it: the other track is management, the track that this whole book has been about. We’ve also repeatedly revisited how we measure the output of a manager, which is the output of their team combined with the output of the others that the manager influences. So we’ve got that down, and the book so far has been full of techniques for managers to increase their output and become more effective.

Generally speaking, however, the most surefire way of a manager increasing their output is for their team to get bigger. You can only have so many direct reports before it starts to become overwhelming. Teams become too large, and the amount of time that’s needed to spend with each individual becomes prohibitive. A rule of thumb ...