How to become an engineering manager

freiheit.com at code.talks 2018

Some people think, that managers are not needed anymore. It is widely believed, that the future belongs to agile, self-organizing teams and emergent behavior. In a world without managers, these teams operate like some kind of swarm intelligence, that always finds the right solution, at the right time, and is constantly creating the highest value for the customer, right?

So why the hell would any sane software engineer ever consider becoming one of the grotesque characters we all know from the Dilbert comics?

But once you work with larger groups of humans you will discover, that there is always a need for really good management, no matter how agile you are. There is a big difference between modern engineering management, and the way most non-engineering organizations execute and experience management today. Instead of focusing on status and politics, modern engineering management emphasizes effectiveness, results, skills, and relationships.

This talk is about what it means to be an engineering manager and how you can become one yourself.

Stefan is a computer scientist and software engineer with over 35 years of hands-on experience. He runs a large engineering group of almost 120 software engineers at freiheit.com technologies, a company he founded 20 years ago. And he thought, too, that the company would never need any managers.