Bosses and managers often get a bad rap (especially the ones that are perceived by their teams to be less technically qualified than they are themselves). But the fact is, those who “run the show” must have a different skill set than the team members they manage. If you are a boss, you know that to be true, but you might still be wondering how to effectively manage a technical team of software developers without a technical background. Doing so may sound dubious, but it is very possible. And, if you out your back into it, non-technical managers can earn big-time respect from their tech savvy teams. Here is how to manage a software development team without technical credentials:
1. First, it is important to understand that project management is a big deal. To effectively manage a project from concept to completion is an intense undertaking, and one that often goes under sung by product/software developers. If you are struggling to win the faith of your dev team, the best way to earn their respect is to make their lives easier. And the best way to do that is through a consistent and structured process. You see, the biggest secret to effective technical project management is that the greatest managerial traits are totally non-technical. While technical training can sharpen your skills, coding knowledge is 100% NOT necessary to running a seamless development project.
2. Managing a software development requires structure, and structure requires something like a map. A product development roadmap, to be precise, and a dang good process in place to follow it. You will find that a great process not only makes YOUR job easier, but it makes coding easier for your developers, too. No matter who they are, your team craves a clear path towards your goal and if you can give it to them, you will be a successful manager. You can also do things like this:
I. isolate the parts of your approach that are working (and those that are not)
II. identify stumbling points and plan for avoiding them in future iterations
III. track progress towards, and make accurate projections for completion
3. When using a solid roadmap, you can use it as a yardstick for measuring the performance of your developers themselves. This is not to suggest that you should use it to back your coders into a corner, but that you can use it as a proof of expectations. If your team has agreed to reach a certain point at a certain time, but you do not achieve that goal, something has gone wrong. Maybe it is with your coders. Maybe it is with the product. Or maybe it is with your process. The point is there is a problem. And if you listen to your roadmap, it will tell you where it is. Often, you and your developers can work together to create a thorough prototype of the product to be built. This cultivates team spirit (really, it does), and it ensures a unified understanding of the project going forward. That unity is crucial to a strong Agile process. And a strong Agile process does a lot of things for you including enabling you to control the level of work you strap to your coders during any given iteration. Because, of course, you want progress fast, but you cannot overwhelm your developers with impossible expectations. It does not require a technical background to know that impossible expectations cannot be met. It is your job as project manager to ensure your team can work effectively without getting burned out. If production speed is extra critical, instead of asking your dev team to build everything from scratch, find out if you already own anything that can be repurposed. Adapting existing code can accelerate your process big time. Review each task in your roadmap to be sure nothing in that backlog is already in place. If so, or if that thing is not a fundamental or imperative piece of the product software, do not spend time building it.
Besides if you do have any questions give me a call: https://clarity.fm/joy-brotonath