Managing clueless software managers

Question

Ideally it would be great if those in management had at least some background in software development. On a number of occasions though, as a software developer, I have found myself dealing with what some might deem (unfairly?) "clueless" management individuals.

Rather then turn this into a anti-management ranting session, can you provide any effective and sensible techniques/approaches to dealing with such a manager?

These days I try very hard to put myself in the managers shoes and see things from their perspective. In some cases this can help, but often I can feel my sanity starting to slip if I go there for too long.

If you find yourself on a project where you have concerns about the quality of management, how do you manage the situation yourself so that things don't completely fall apart?

Answer 1

I would suggest a couple good books to them, like Behind Closed Doors. If they aren't receptive to book suggestions, then I would suggest a couple techniques that you want to use (i.e. code reviews, agile, scrum, etc).

Answer 2

If a manager has unrealistic expectations due to lack of technical knowhow, let them know that immediately and explain why clearly. Offer a compromise- perhaps less features, perhaps a simpler design with less bells and whistles.

That's the most common problem with managers of this type in my experience... but perhaps you have something else in mind.

Answer 3

Its been my experience that when management doesn't listen there really is not much you can do about it. So when you have concerns about the quality of management ask yourself if they are approachable and open to having this conversation with their team. Usually a dev meeting with several developers mentioning problems like that allows management to sit up and take notice. Above all, try to do this as a team not as a loner.

Answer 4

Never manage your boss. Your post doesn't mention a single 'behavior' that you could even give feedback on. Clueless isn't behavior.

Answer 5

I try to convince them I am highly competant and can help them achieve their goals. Once they are ok with this you can influence them more easily and achieve what you want.

Answer 6

If you don't let them have any accomplishments, they increase their rate of meddling. Every so often, when they are getting a bit too much to handle and you know they are going to interfere with something, put an obvious little shortcoming where they'll see it. They will feel like they've accomplished something and won't feel the need to interfere any further beyond that, leaving you to get on with the job.

Answer 7

Get them to write down their expectations (e.g. bugs fixed/features added) for the next 3 months in email. If they are unrealistic, and the manager does not respond well to compromise, then try anyway, fail, and repeat.

If you start getting heat from that manager, you have the perfect documentation which shows a) your proactivity on the matter; and b) the managers incompetence at not heading your concerns and doing anything about it.

Answer 8

DOCUMENT DOCUMENT DOCUMENT. If they are ignorant (that's not a pejorative), help them to learn what they need to know. If they are dumbasses (that's the pejorative), compile your documentation. Wait until their bosses are annoyed with them and ask for a sitdown. But no matter what, in all dealings where their lack of knowledge has affected your or anybody else's ability or desire to work, record it in some way.

Answer 9

I've been in this situation in the past and my best advice is to take the extra time to explain why something might be a good or bad idea. Do it concisely, maybe even just the bullet points. Stay positive, offer alternatives, and talk in terms of costs.

Of course, if your manager isn't just a little clueless, but instead incompetent... well, good luck.

Answer 10

I would say that you can always help managers by providing:

• accurate, concise status on the situation
• your best time estimates, including "I have no clue at all on how long this could take, but you can invest x days to get an idea"
• clear cut tactical choices with advantages and drawbacks. This includes things like "I can do this quickly now, but you'll have to pay the price later (and it may be worse, it would be x.)"

The idea is to try to install a trust climate where, even if the manager doesn't understand your job, she will trust your experience and assessment of the situation.

My feeling is that a manager would be more likely to trust you if you continuously provide data to help her do the job of reporting/resourcing/deciding, because if you put yourself in the shoes of the manager (esp. the non-technical one) you'll see that what's usually killing her is the amount of uncertainty while facing tough (internal/external) client expectations.

Of course, I'm talking about "sane" situations here. When internal politics come into play, you may have to pull lots of other levers.

Eric.

Answer 11

There's a lot to say here. First I'm assuming that your assessment about your manager being "clueless" is accurate because this will cut my answer in half. The plain and simple answer for dealing with clueless managers is not to work for them.

If you've paid attention to growing your career through involvement in your local developer community, extending your network, and building your personal brand (Jeff Atwood discussed this a lot on Coding Horror and you look at the results of his efforts here), you should be able to send out a message that you're looking and have an alternative available shortly. If your job/boss is getting in the way of your growth get rid of him.

I know it sounds like I'm oversimplifying things but think of it this way. Do you think your job/boss would hesitate to get rid of you if he felt you were in the way of his goals?

If you haven't gotten to the point where a message to your network gets you a promising opportunity to further your career, grin and bear it and work on making that your number one goal.

Of course your professional network should be more than your personal recruiting agency (if the only communication you do with people is to ask them what jobs they know about then they probably won't be likely to give you much help), but the main point of networking is to have people you can bounce ideas off of, get advice from, and receive help getting your resume in front of a decision maker. At the very least you should be available to do the same.

Help growing your network should be left to another question altogether.

Answer 12

A good manager that has wandered from their core field (e.g., a mechanical engineer managing a team of software engineers) will always have some vocabulary that you both share. A good example is risk: "Manager, I am working on task B before task A because it will minimize risk in the long run." Another is estimate to complete: "We estimate that tasks A-G will be complete in time for the quarterly release based on our data (we use evidence-based scheduling around here). Tasks H-M are at risk."

In general, I find that if the software engineer tries to speak the language of the manager, there is always a way to communicate. It takes some time and effort (on the part of the software engineer) to find out what those communication channels are and how to use them effectively.

In my work experience, I have never had a manager was a serious software engineer-type. I suspect that this problem is more of the norm than the exception so it's worth figuring out how you're going to deal with it.