What is the most important attribute of a project manager/team leader you expect?

Question

Just read Joel on Software - How to be a program manager.

In his article he points out different things for a program manager.

• ...(in fact, with 14 years of programming experience, you might know too much to be a good user advocate
• ...earn the respect of the programmers so that they concede that you’re right
• ...It helps, as a program manager, to be pretty good at coding yourself
• ...demonstrate intelligence, open-mindedness, and fairness in any debates

What do you, as the perfect audience to vote for this question, think. What attributes of a project manager are in your opinion

1. indispensable
2. less important
3. needless
4. inoperative

to have.

Answer 1

A project manager who understands that software estimations are NOT the deadline.

Answer 2

I agree very much with Joel's Development Abstraction Layer article.

Answer 3

IMO the most important skill of a PM is sheilding developers from the politics of the job. If the customer (whether that be internal or external) is interfering with the developer's productivity then the PM isnt doing their job.

Answer 4

In my opinion a good project manager / team leader is able to act as grease between customer, management and developer, advocates for each party if needed (not just management), and deals with obstacles that prevent the project from moving forward so developers can focus on developing.

Answer 5

The ability to tell good from bad, that we casually refer to as "quality". Everything else just follows.

Answer 6

I'd say that the ability to remove roadblocks from the path of the developers before they become problems is the single most important aspect of this type of management.

Having a clear, well defined path for development allows devs to find their flow state without having to switch or stop.

Answer 7

A nice management method, which I like, is MBWA (not to be mixed up with MBA). This means management by walking around. It can sound a bit weird but think of it...

Look at this link (as one of many available out there): http://www.businesstown.com/people/communication-walking.asp

...and of cause this doesn't work for every manager and project there is...

Answer 8

I hate to tell you this, but the most important attribute is their Communication ability; hands down. If they can't communicate well they can't remove road blocks, and they can't translate between the stakeholders and the doers.

Communication is shortly followed by organisation/planning ability and tool knowledge; and of course by domain knowledge (B.S. detector, and a general understanding of the project without having to ask... what's that all the time.)

Without these three things, you are at a disadvantage.

So, I agree with Joel, that having a background in programming is essential for a Project Manager/ Program Manager - especially with intangible things like software. However, do you have to have 10 or 15 years experience? No. a couple years on the floor should clue you in enough.

Answer 9

Team leader:

• Communication
• Ability to lead/drive the team (so many can't)
• Ability to code and understand any piece of code written by any team member
• Should never lie about his experience level (my case currently, cant trust the decisions he makes to be correct...)

Answer 10

In my experience, the project manager and the team leader are not the same person. In fact, I've never had a project manager as my team lead in the 15 years I've been in IT.

To answer your question, what I look for in a team leader:

• Compassion
• Empathy
• Knowledge of the business
• Knowledge of the technology we're using
• Patience
• Good mentoring skills
• Good listening skills