The Problem with Coding Managers
My article about non-coding managers made sense. That article referred to my experience working with a tech manager who simply didn’t code (or do much of anything else, frankly).
That isn’t my only poor experience working with managers in my software development career. This particular article covers my experience working with a manager who did code with a passion.
Yet they were still rubbish.
Here is what happened
Taking on a new leader
I used to work for a startup. That particular firm prized its nice culture, which they seemed to think made up, for them paying below-market salaries.
When our tech manager left, the salary inhibited the recruitment of a replacement. The solution?
Get in anyone.
Since the quality might not be there, do not confirm this appointment with the team.
The ideas
This new manager came from a below-par local corporation. He spoke about his love of coding, and he did really enjoy programming but at a rather amateur level.
His code? Full of mistakes.
Our codebase also had many issues. Unsurprisingly perhaps some of these issues had caching at the root.
Our intrepid leader had a great idea, and “friends” (quotations because these were Internet acquaintances) agreed with it.
Delete the entire codebase.
Not a joke
You might think this is comment simply a joke. Nobody would move into a new company and suggest everyone’s work to be simply deleted.
In a way, the truth is worse. He deleted our snapshot tests.
For those unfamiliar with FE work Snapshot testing is a type of output comparison testing for the UI. They take extra time to generate and make sure they produce worthwhile results.
Thousands of hours of work deleted at a pull request.
Why this might be an issue
Do you like your work deleted?
You think testing’s important (and what does this say about you)
You think testing’s not important (and what does that say about you)
Changing the culture of the team
Why this was an issue for The Secret Developer
If you don’t adequately test code, you have no certainty over whether it works or not. When you remove that from your FE team, and they change a String (or two) and no tests change in the PR you know you need to worry.
If you don’t care about code correctness, what do you care about?
This manager loved coding. They didn’t care about what they programmed, or whether it would yield the correct result.
You should know what that reminds me of. A junior.
The underlying issue, and how it should be tackled
Many technical managers in this case aren’t managers. That is, they don’t know or care about the people they are managing.
They aren’t doing half of their job. That’s more than half of an issue, to be frank.
Perhaps a solution to this could be to have a professional body for IT management, as well as a professional body for IT skills. You know we should be certain that any candidate is capable of performing in the role they are hired for.
Or perhaps just interview people for the skills required so they can successfully work in the roles they have been recruited for.
Conclusion
It’s getting to the point where the tech industry needs to sort itself out. If you wish to have high-performing staff you need to manage them.
How hard can it be?
Frankly, they are making an easy task look like an extremely difficult one. They should be doing the opposite.