home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
- Newsgroups: comp.software-eng
- Path: sparky!uunet!tcsi.com!hermes!miket
- From: miket@hermes.tcs.com (Michael Turner nmscore Assoc.)
- Subject: Re: Will we keep ignoring this productivity issue?
- Message-ID: <1992Nov18.023832.19979@tcsi.com>
- Sender: news@tcsi.com
- Organization: Teknekron Communications Inc.
- References: <BxpLGC.DCp@cs.uiuc.edu> <1992Nov16.090509.22236@mole-end.matawan.nj.us> <1992Nov17.144351.8384@saifr00.cfsat.honeywell.com>
- Date: Wed, 18 Nov 1992 02:38:32 GMT
- Lines: 33
-
- In article <1992Nov17.144351.8384@saifr00.cfsat.honeywell.com> shanks@saifr00.cfsat.honeywell.com (Mark Shanks) writes:
- >In article <1992Nov16.090509.22236@mole-end.matawan.nj.us> mat@mole-end.matawan.nj.us writes:
- >>
- >>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.
-
- "Completely different" doesn't mean "completely incompatible." But it
- does seem to work out that way. In my not-so-humble opinion, I can be
- a good programmer. In my (so far) single stab at management, if my ability
- in that area didn't get quite to the coprophilic stage, it was largely
- because I recognized that we needed to get a better manager hired soon,
- or my project was going to get into even more trouble.
-
- >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.
-
- The best project I ever worked on was run by a guy who was a pretty
- good programmer (coming originally from EE, by the way), as well as
- a pretty good, down-to-earth manager. But that's one project out of a
- dozen or so, by now. I'm beginning to despair of seeing anything
- similar happen between now and retirement.
- ---
- Michael Turner
- miket@tcs.com
-