NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #27/NN_1992_27.iso/spool/comp/software/4347

Text File | 1992-11-17 | 2.8 KB | 52 lines

Newsgroups: comp.software-eng
Path: sparky!uunet!charon.amdahl.com!pacbell.com!sgiblab!spool.mu.edu!umn.edu!The-Star.honeywell.com!saifr00.cfsat.honeywell.com!shanks
From: [e-mail] (Mark Shanks)
Subject: Re: Will we keep ignoring this productivity issue?
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Organization: Honeywell Air Transport Systems Division
References: <[e-mail]> <[e-mail]> <[e-mail]>
Date: Tue, 17 Nov 92 14:43:51 GMT
Lines: 41

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] writes:
>In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail] (Ralph Johnson) writes:
>> ... One of the problems with software development is that the managers don't
>> know enough about software to tell who are the stellar performers and who
>> are the duds.  Thus, the strategy "just hire very good people" can't work
>> because it can't be implemented: management is not able to tell who is
>> good and who is not.
>
>> ...  I never have any trouble telling which of my students are good
>> programmers: I read their code.  In my opinion, managers should look at
>> what their employees are doing to see if they are doing a good job or not.
>> In the case of software engineers, that means reading design documents,
>> programs, test suites, and anything else they produce.
>
>In other words, the manager has to have an appreciation of the `useful
>art' of programming!  Which means they have to be good programmers themselves.
>--                                     ^^^^

I strongly disagree. With no desire to cast aspersions upon the value of
good programers, in my experience the abilities required of a good
manager are completely different than those required by a good programmer.
In too many cases I've seen excellent engineers promoted into management
positions where 1) They were unhappy and frustrated, and 2) Their
management ability sucked the shit out of dead cats.

Good managers MUST be able to deal with people. Most good programers
I've known were not stellar performers in that area. Managers must
be schedule and budget conscious; this is not at the top of most
engineers' list of things to think about. Managers are best off when they
have a wide range of experience themselves; most good programmers have at
best a limited background (and I don't mean how many programs they've
worked on.)

If management can't tell who is a good programmer and who isn't, that's
right, they ARE technically incompetent. But they're also lousy managers.
It certainly would be IDEAL to find a good programmer who would also
make a good manager, but IMHO, a good manager doesn't NEED to be/have been
a good programmer. IMHO.

Mark Shanks
[e-mail]