Agile Leadership: Methodology Ain’t Enough
It’s a running joke in software development that as soon as someone demonstrates that he’s a good software developer, he’s promoted to management, whether he wants it or not.
- Image by Cappellmeister via Flickr
In recent years, of course, many companies have addressed this to some extent, and it’s now just as common to see software leaders come from a formal Project Management background, often without having had prior experience in hands-on development. I’d argue that this still isn’t ideal, unfortunately, since this simply gives you a business-oriented leader who doesn’t understand the technical domain of his or her work.
A recent entry on The Hacker Chick Blog explores this issue, as well (Agile Leadership: Methodology Ain’t Enough). Read through this article, and consider a leader with a technical career path vs. a non-technical career path. Is it reasonable to expect someone without a proper technical background to be able to facilitate the sort of interactions Abby describes in her post?
I believe that a really effective direct manager (not a manager-of-managers) really does have to combine technical skills with business skills. One without the other, in my experience, leads to frustration and conflict.
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