Managing the Unmanageable

"Mantle and Lichty have assembled a guide that will help you hire, motivate, and mentor a software development team that functions at the highest level. Their rules of thumb and coaching advice are great blueprints for new and experienced software engineering managers alike." -Tom Conrad, CTO, Pandora "I wish I'd had this material available years ago. I see lots and lots of 'meat' in here that I'll use over and over again as I try to become a better manager. The writing style is right on, and I love the personal anecdotes." -Steve Johnson, VP, Custom Solutions, DigitalFish All too often, software development is deemed unmanageable. The news is filled with stories of projects that have run catastrophically over schedule and budget. Although adding some formal discipline to the development process has improved the situation, it has by no means solved the problem. How can it be, with so much time and money spent to get software development under control, that it remains so unmanageable? In Managing the Unmanageable: Rules, Tools, and Insights for Managing Software People and Teams, Mickey W. Mantle and Ron Lichty answer that persistent question with a simple observation: You first must make programmers and software teams manageable. That is, you need to begin by understanding your people-how to hire them, motivate them, and lead them to develop and deliver great products. Drawing on their combined seventy years of software development and management experience, and highlighting the insights and wisdom of other successful managers, Mantle and Lichty provide the guidance you need to manage people and teams in order to deliver software successfully. Whether you are new to software management, or have already been working in that role, you will appreciate the real-world knowledge and practical tools packed into this guide.

The Essential Guide to Effectively Managing Developers So You Can Deliver Better Software— Now Extensively Updated “Lichty and Mantle have assembled a guide that will help you hire, motivate, and mentor a software development team that functions at the highest level. Their rules of thumb and coaching advice form a great blueprint for new and experienced software engineering managers alike.” —Tom Conrad, CTO, Pandora “Reading this book’s nuggets felt like the sort of guidance that I would get from a trusted mentor. A mentor who I not only trusted, but one who trusted me to take the wisdom, understand its limits, and apply it correctly.” —Mike Fauzy, CTO, FauzyLogic Today, many software projects continue to run catastrophically over schedule and budget, and still don’t deliver what customers want. Some organizations conclude that software development can’t be managed well. But it can—and it starts with people. In their extensively updated Managing the Unmanageable, Second Edition, Mickey W. Mantle and Ron Lichty show how to hire and develop programmers, onboard new hires quickly and successfully, and build and nurture highly effective and productive teams. Drawing on over 80 years of combined industry experience, the authors share Rules of Thumb, Nuggets of Wisdom, checklists, and other Tools for successfully leading programmers and teams, whether they’re co-located or dispersed worldwide. This edition adds extensive new Agile coverage, new approaches to recruitment and onboarding, expanded coverage of handling problem employees, and much more. Whether you’re new to software management or you’ve done it for years, you’ll find indispensable advice for handling your challenges and delivering outstanding software. Find, recruit, and hire the right programmers, when you need them Manage programmers as the individuals they are Motivate software people and teams to accomplish truly great feats Create a successful development subculture that can thrive even in a toxic company culture Master the arts of managing down and managing up Embrace your role as a manager who empowers self-directed agile teams to thrive and succeed Register your book for convenient access to downloads, updates, and/or corrections as they become available. See inside book for details.

The Essential Guide to Effectively Managing Developers So You Can Deliver Better Software— Now Extensively Updated “Lichty and Mantle have assembled a guide that will help you hire, motivate, and mentor a software development team that functions at the highest level. Their rules of thumb and coaching advice form a great blueprint for new and experienced software engineering managers alike.” —Tom Conrad, CTO, Pandora “Reading this book’s nuggets felt like the sort of guidance that I would get from a trusted mentor. A mentor who I not only trusted, but one who trusted me to take the wisdom, understand its limits, and apply it correctly.” —Mike Fauzy, CTO, FauzyLogic Today, many software projects continue to run catastrophically over schedule and budget, and still don’t deliver what customers want. Some organizations conclude that software development can’t be managed well. But it can—and it starts with people. In their extensively updated Managing the Unmanageable, Second Edition, Mickey W. Mantle and Ron Lichty show how to hire and develop programmers, onboard new hires quickly and successfully, and build and nurture highly effective and productive teams. Drawing on over 80 years of combined industry experience, the authors share Rules of Thumb, Nuggets of Wisdom, checklists, and other Tools for successfully leading programmers and teams, whether they’re co-located or dispersed worldwide. This edition adds extensive new Agile coverage, new approaches to recruitment and onboarding, expanded coverage of handling problem employees, and much more. Whether you’re new to software management or you’ve done it for years, you’ll find indispensable advice for handling your challenges and delivering outstanding software. Find, recruit, and hire the right programmers, when you need them Manage programmers as the individuals they are Motivate software people and teams to accomplish truly great feats Create a successful development subculture that can thrive even in a toxic company culture Master the arts of managing down and managing up Embrace your role as a manager who empowers self-directed agile teams to thrive and succeed Register your book for convenient access to downloads, updates, and/or corrections as they become available. See inside book for details.