28.6. Managing Your Manager

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In software development, nontechnical managers are common, as are managers who have technical experience but who are 10 years behind the times. Technically competent, technically current managers are rare. If you work for one, do whatever you can to keep your job. It's an unusual treat.

In a hierarchy, every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence.

The Peter Principle

If your manager is more typical, you're faced with the unenviable task of managing your manager. "Managing your manager" means that you need to tell your manager what to do rather than the other way around. The trick is to do it in a way that allows your manager to continue believing that you are the one being managed. Here are some approaches to dealing with your manager:

Plant ideas for what you want to do, and then wait for your manager to have a brainstorm (your idea) about doing what you want to do.

Educate your manager about the right way to do things. This is an ongoing job because managers are often promoted, transferred, or fired.

Focus on your manager's interests, doing what he or she really wants you to do, and don't distract your manager with unnecessary implementation details. (Think of it as "encapsulation" of your job.)

Refuse to do what your manager tells you, and insist on doing your job the right way.

Find another job.

The best long-term solution is to try to educate your manager. That's not always an easy task, but one way you can prepare for it is by reading Dale Carnegie's How to Win Friends and Influence People.

Additional Resources on Managing Construction

cc2e.com/2813

Here are a few books that cover issues of general concern in managing software projects:

Gilb, Tom. Principles of Software Engineering Management. Wokingham, England: Addison-Wesley, 1988. Gilb has charted his own course for thirty years, and most of the time he's been ahead of the pack whether or not the pack realizes it. This book is a good example. This was one of the first books to discuss evolutionary development practices, risk management, and the use of formal inspections. Gilb is keenly aware of leadingedge approaches; indeed, this book published more than 15 years ago contains most of the good practices currently flying under the "Agile" banner. Gilb is incredibly pragmatic, and the book is still one of the best software-management books.

McConnell, Steve. Rapid Development. Redmond, WA: Microsoft Press, 1996. This book covers project-leadership and project-management issues from the perspective of projects that are experiencing significant schedule pressure, which in my experience is most projects.

Brooks, Frederick P., Jr. The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering, Anniversary Edition (2d ed). Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1995. This book is a hodgepodge of metaphors and folklore related to managing programming projects. It's entertaining, and it will give you many illuminating insights into your own projects. It's based on Brooks's challenges in developing the OS/360 operating system, which gives me some reservations. It's full of advice along the lines of "We did this and it failed" and "We should have done this because it would have worked." Brooks's observations about techniques that failed are well grounded, but his claims that other techniques would have worked are too speculative. Read the book critically to separate the observations from the speculations. This warning doesn't diminish the book's basic value. It's still cited in computing literature more often than any other book, and even though it was originally published in 1975, it seems fresh today. It's hard to read it without saying "Right on!" every couple of pages.

Relevant Standards

IEEE Std 1058-1998, Standard for Software Project Management Plans.

IEEE Std 12207-1997, Information Technology Software Life Cycle Processes.

IEEE Std 1045-1992, Standard for Software Productivity Metrics.

IEEE Std 1062-1998, Recommended Practice for Software Acquisition.

IEEE Std 1540-2001, Standard for Software Life Cycle Processes Risk Management.

IEEE Std 828-1998, Standard for Software Configuration Management Plans

IEEE Std 1490-1998, Guide Adoption of PMI Standard A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge.

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Code Complete
Code Complete: A Practical Handbook of Software Construction, Second Edition
ISBN: 0735619670
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 334

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