Managing programmers is hard! Becoming a successful manager requires a drastic change of focus. There are expectations to consider before making a leap to the “dark side.” The transition from programmer to manager is made particularly challenging by the dramatic difference between what made us successful as programmers and what it takes to successfully manage others. In addition, programmers are an interesting management challenge. We tend to be free spirits, playful, curious, and (very) independent. How can you ease the transition into management? What’s management really about? What will you give up? Bio: Ron Lichty wants to make software development better worldwide by advancing the practice of software development management. He has been alternating between consulting with and managing software development and product organizations for 25 years, almost all of those spent untangling the knots in software development and transforming chaos to clarity, the last 20 of those in the era of Agile. Originally a programmer, he earned several patents and wrote two popular programming books before being hired into his first management role by Apple Computer, which nurtured his managerial growth in both development and product management roles. Principal and owner of Ron Lichty Consulting, Inc. (www.RonLichty.com), Ron has repeatedly been brought in as an acting CTO and interim vice president of engineering to solve development team challenges. He has trained teams in Scrum, transitioned teams from waterfall and iterative methodologies to agile, coached teams already using agile to make their software development "hum", and trained managers in managing software people and teams. In his continued search for effective best practices, Ron co-authors the Study of Product Team Performance (http://www.ronlichty.com/study.html). Ron's most recent book is Managing the Unmanageable: Rules, Tools, and Insights for Managing Software People and Teams - http://www.ManagingTheUnmanageable.net. Published by Addison Wesley as both book and video training, it has been compared by reviewers to software development classics, The Mythical Man-Month and Peopleware. During Ron's first three years at Charles Schwab, he led software development of the first investor tools on Schwab.com, playing a role in transforming the bricks-and-mortar discount brokerage into a premier name in online financial services. He was promoted to Schwab vice president while leading his CIO’s three-year technology initiative to migrate software development from any-language-goes to a single, cost-effective platform company-wide and nurturing Schwab's nascent efforts to leverage early Agile approaches. He has led products and development across a wide range of domains for companies of all sizes, from startups to the Fortune 500, including Fujitsu, Razorfish, Stanford, and Apple. Ron co-chairs the Silicon Valley Engineering Leadership Community.

1. Want to Be a Manager?
(Are you sure?)
Ron Lichty | Ron Lichty Consulting
Ron@RonLichty.com | www.ronlichty.com

2. *
* Addison Wesley (Amazon, BarnesandNoble, InformIT.com, Safari)
http://ManagingTheUnmanageable.net <-----tools, excerpts, more rules of thumb

3. © Ron Lichty 3
http://ManagingTheUnmanageable.net <-----and pointers to video training

4. Coauthor, Study of Product Team Performance
http://www.ronlichty.com/study.html
4

5. Ron Lichty,
Managing Software People & Teams
SOFTWEST

6. Ron Lichty,
Managing Software People & Teams

7. You?

8. Software People Managers
• Only half have had a single day of
training in management of any kind
• Less than 5% had a day of
management training prior to managing
• Even fewer had a day of training
specific to managing software people

9. Why we wrote:
* Addison Wesley published October 2012
*

10. Software People Managers
• Isn’t it odd...
– how long we expect programmers to have
studied the art of programming
– how little we expect managers to have
studied the art of managing?

11. Manager Training with Impact
• Managers and the Law
• Situational Leadership
• Reflective Listening

12. Manager Training with Impact
• Managers and the Law
• Situational Leadership
• Reflective Listening
• Managing Software People and Teams
(live classes, & now LiveLessons video)

13. Manager Training with Impact
• Managers and the Law
• Situational Leadership
• Reflective Listening
• Managing Software People and Teams
(live classes, & now LiveLessons video)
• The Agile Manager

14. Success as a Programmer

15. Success as a Programmer
• Highly honed coding skill
• Focus
• Block out distractions

16. Success as a Manager

17. Success as a Manager
• Welcome interruptions
• Focus on enabling others
• Delegate to others what you could do better
• People skills, coaching skills, and empathy
• Too few role models
• Dramatically more managing up and out

18. Anti-Pattern
• Both Code and Manage

19. Easing the Transition
• Training
• Books

20. Easing the Transition
• Training
• Books
• Mentoring
– boss
– new peers
– network

21. How we came to write:
* Addison Wesley published October 2012
*
Mentoring

22. How we came to write:
* Addison Wesley published October 2012
*
Co-mentoring

23. Easing the Transition
• Training
• Books
• Mentors
• Ask other managers
– most important lessons
– mistakes they made, and how they solved them
– surprises, both good and bad
– sources of strength and support

24. Easing the Transition
• Training
• Books
• Mentoring: boss, new peers, network
• Ask other managers
• Ask your reports (practice reflective listening!)
– what they want in a manager
– what they’d wish could change

25. Leverage Rules of Thumb
• Pair programming for half an hour during
an interview will save everyone’s time.
– David Vydra, TestDriven.com
• Writing clean code is what you must do in order
to call yourself a professional developer.
– Uncle Bob Martin, co-author, Agile Manifesto
• Brooks’s Law: Adding manpower to a late
software project makes it later.
– Frederick P. Brooks Jr.

26. Rules of Thumb / Nuggets of Wisdom*
* 300 in the book / more at http://managingtheunmanageable.net/morerulesofthumb.html
26(c) Ron Lichty: Teamwork: Making
Your Dream Team Come True
Ron@RonLichty.com

27. Become a Great Manager
• Fairness
• Ethical, forthright, honest

28. Ethical
• Leading by example occurs whether
you like it or not.
— Jateen Parekh, Founder, CTO, Jelli Crowdsourced Radio

29. Ethical
• Leading by example occurs whether
you like it or not.
— Jateen Parekh, Founder, CTO, Jelli Crowdsourced Radio
• Example is not the most important way of
influencing other people. It’s the only way.
— Albert Schweitzer

30. Leading by Example: Nugget of Wisdom
• Nothing undermines your credibility as a
manager more completely than pounding on
your team all year to get their work done on
time and then telling them you don’t have
their reviews done because you were busy.
Whatever you were busy with likely wasn’t
managing your people, so you’ve just
proven to them that they don’t matter. Good
luck motivating them next year.
– Tim Swihart, engineering director, Apple Computer

31. Become a Great Manager
• Fairness
• Ethical, forthright, honest
• Facilitate communication

32. Communication
32
You cannot overcommunicate.
-RON LICHTY
(c) Ron Lichty: Teamwork: Making
Your Dream Team Come True
Ron@RonLichty.com

33. Communicating
• You have to communicate more
• Encourage your team to communicate
• Create a culture of communication
– at every level
– with everyone
• up, down, within and across
• “We have two ears and one mouth. Use them in
this ratio.”
— Kimberly Wiefling

34. Become a Servant Leader
• Theory Y: “enabling”, “empowering”, “developmental",
“continuous improvement” -> Servant Leadership
McGregor's X-Y Theory
34(c) Ron Lichty
Managing the Unmanageable: Rules, Tools, and Insights for Managing Software People and Teams , http://www.ManagingTheUnmanageable.net
Ron@RonLichty.com

35. Always Be Recruiting

36. Always Be Recruiting
• Recruiting: A manager’s most important job

37. Always Be Recruiting
• Recruiting: A manager’s most important job
• Always be recruiting
– Be out there

38. Always Be Recruiting
• Recruiting: A manager’s most important job
• Always be recruiting
– Be out there
• Why must we give it focus & attention?

39. Always Be Recruiting
• Recruiting: A manager’s most important job
• Always be recruiting
– Be out there
• Why must we give it focus & attention?
– Hiring windows

40. Always Be Recruiting
• Recruiting: A manager’s most important job
• Always be recruiting
– Be out there
• Why must we give it focus & attention?
– Hiring windows
– Getting it right is critical

41. One Bad Hire
• a plague on your team for months
• demotivate your team
• demoralize your organization
• undermine your leadership
• incite dissension and strife
• delay or derail your deliverables
• and... it’s so hard it is to get rid of bad hires!

42. Always Be Recruiting
• Recruiting: A manager’s most important job
• Always be recruiting
– Be out there
• Why must we give it focus & attention?
– Hiring windows
– Getting it right is critical
• Don’t let fear of making a bad decision rule

43. Handle Problem Employees
• Know: There’s no perfect recruiting record

44. Handle Problem Employees
• Know: There’s no perfect recruiting record
• Even if there were,
you’ll inherit a problem employee

45. Handle Problem Employees
• Know: There’s no perfect recruiting record
• even if there were, you’ll inherit a problem
• Intervention beats performance plans & firing
– Requires preparation, commitment, time
– But it’s focused on fixing the issue earlier:
• Marty Brounstein: Handling the Difficult Employee

46. Intervention Meetings
• a LOT of preparation
• stating the problem
• list every impact
• let your employee vent
• brainstorm solutions
• map out a plan
– that must include regular, structured follow-ups

47. Handle Problem Employees
• Know: There’s no perfect recruiting record
• Intervention beats performance plans & firing
– Requires preparation, commitment, time
– But it’s focused on fixing the issue earlier:
• Marty Brounstein: Handling the Difficult Employee
• One of two results:
– Turns them around
– They quit on their own

48. Handle Problem Employees
• Know: There’s no perfect recruiting record
• Intervention beats performance plans & firing
– Requires preparation, commitment, time
– But it’s focused on fixing the issue earlier:
• Marty Brounstein: Handling the Difficult Employee
• One of two results:
– Turns them around
– They quit on their own
• Handle it!

49. Programmers Aren’t All Alike!
• Programming disciplines
• Generations of programmers
• Morning people vs night people
• Employees vs Contractors
• Proximity
• Cowboys vs Farmers

50. Stay Focused on What’s Important!
In the beginning, everyone will talk about
scope, and budget, and schedule, but in
the end, nobody really cares about any
of those things. The only thing they care
about is this:
People will love your software, or they
won’t.
So that’s the only criterion to which you
should truly manage.
—Joseph Kleinschmidt, SF CTO / now CEO

51. Leaders and Delegation
• Rules of Thumb
Trust but verify.
51

52. Leaders and Delegation
Trust but verify.
-RONALD REAGAN quo3ng VLADIMIR LENIN
52

53. – imperative not to micromanage
– the essence of delegation
– setting expected outcomes for teams
Leaders and Delegation
Trust but verify.
-RONALD REAGAN quo3ng VLADIMIR LENIN
53

54. Leaders and Delegation
I inspect what I expect.
- ALAN LEFKOF, Netopia CEO, quo3ng LOU GERSTNER
54
Trust but verify.
-RONALD REAGAN quo3ng VLADIMIR LENIN

55. Motivation
• The things that Motivate are not the same as
the things that De-Motivate

56. Motivation
• Just as you actively Motivate
• You need to actively avoid De-Motivating

57. Motivation
• Just as you actively Motivate
• You need to actively avoid De-Motivating
* Frederick Herzberg, 1950s

58. Motivators vs De-Motivators

59. Be Careful What You Reward
• “Behavior revolves around what you measure.”
--Jim Highsmith
– If you reward heroes...
• What gets measured gets manipulated.
• “Do you define “done” as “coding complete”?
– Or as features that delight customers?
• Be very careful trying to reward with cash

60. Managers Must Foster Culture
• Trust Our People
• Empower Self-Organization & Excellence
• Expect / Enable Truly Shared Leadership
• Model, Defend, Evangelize Agile Values
• Foster a Culture of Communication
• Encourage Teamwork and Collaboration
• Shield Teams from Politics & Distraction
• Take Care of Stuff! Take Care of Teams!

61. Establishing Culture
• Does your company live its values?
• Programming culture ≠ corporate culture
– Wall parts off
– Substitute and bolster more appropriate values
• Wherever you can, leverage culture & values

62. Establishing Culture
• “Publicly reward or acknowledge engineers
who act in a way that supports the culture
that you want to create.”
—Juanita Mah, engineering manager

63. Learn to Manage Up

64. Learn to Manage Up
• “The single most important leader in an
organization is your immediate supervisor.”
– Jim Kouzes
• “You can safely assume all perceptions are
real, at least to those who own them.”
– Joe Folkman

65. Managing Out & Up
• Because
– your peers increasingly are not technical
– and your boss may not be either
• …they’ll pressure you
– to micromanage your team (or let them)
– to report on / prove your team’s productivity
– to fill your team’s plates to capacity

66. Climbing the Career Ladder
The very thing that has made you
successful in your last role will get
in your way in your next role.

67. These, or...
• Your new hire’s first day
• Fostering and nurturing unique culture
• The value of regular one-on-ones
• Managing your people
• Getting programmers to work together well

68. So Why Manage?
• You get to go broad
– Affect more of the product
– Affect more of the customer experience
• You get to be more in the conversation
• You get to mentor and coach and motivate
– A whole team
– To become something more

69. A Few Closing Rules of Thumb
• If you’re a people manager, your people are far more important than
anything else you’re working on.
—Tim Swihart, Engineering Director
• Projects should be run like marathons. You have to set a healthy pace
that can win the race and expect to sprint for the finish line.
—Ed Catmull, CTO, Pixar Animation Studios
• In applications with high technical debt, estimating is nearly
impossible.
—Jim Highsmith, Agile Coach and Leader
• The quality of code you demand during the first week of a project is
the quality of code you’ll get every week thereafter.
—Joseph Kleinschmidt, CTO, Leverage Software

70. Raffle!
• either
– business card
– name / email onto blank
• If you still want to manage...
– Focus on becoming the manager and the leader
you always wanted to work for

71. Upcoming Talks & Classes
Managing in an Agile World
– Sat, Oct. 13, Silicon Valley Code Camp, San Jose
Agile and Scrum: Immersive Training
– Friday, Oct. 19, School of Visual Concepts, Seattle
71© Ron Lichty

72. Ron Lichty Consulting
• Mentoring, coaching, training, consulting:
– http://ronlichty.com, Ron@RonLichty.com
• The book:
Managing the Unmanageable:
Rules, Tools & Insights for Managing Software People & Teams
– http://ManagingTheUnmanageable.net <-----tools, excerpts, more rules of thumb
• The video training:
LiveLessons: Managing Software People and Teams
– http://ManagingTheUnmanageable.net/video.html
• The study:
The Study of Product Team Performance
– http://ronlichty.com/study.html
• Training:
The Agile Manager
Managing Software People and Teams
Zero to Agile in Three Days
72

73. Informit.com/lichty
Video Training 50% discount code:
• Use code VIDEO50
Book 35% discount code:
• Use code SWDEV35
• Good whether print, eBook, or combination
• eBook includes PDF, EPUB, MOBI formats
Discount codes applicable only at informit.com
Also available on the Safari Bookshelf

74. Ron Lichty Consulting
• Mentoring, coaching, training, consulting:
– http://ronlichty.com, Ron@RonLichty.com
• The book:
Managing the Unmanageable:
Rules, Tools & Insights for Managing Software People & Teams
– http://ManagingTheUnmanageable.net <-----tools, excerpts, more rules of thumb
• The video training:
LiveLessons: Managing Software People and Teams
– http://ManagingTheUnmanageable.net/video.html
• The study:
The Study of Product Team Performance
– http://ronlichty.com/study.html
• Training:
The Agile Manager
Managing Software People and Teams
Zero to Agile in Three Days
74