Louis Testa - Growing Software: Proven Strategies for Managing Software Engineers

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In many small and growing companies, engineering managers are often in the unique position of having to deal with the technical team and other senior managers, while simultaneously taking direction from the CEO. Too often, development managers focus only on technology, even though the nontechnical aspects of the job can have the biggest impact on a company's success. As your company grows, problems that once seemed small can grow accordingly, exploding into major disasters. I wrote Growing Software to offer advice for newer development managers about how to succeed when faced with these diverse challenges.

The role of a development manager at a small company differs from the same role in a large and stable company in many ways. For example, the development manager at a small company must often work with developers to support an immature product. Development managers must also work with the strong personalities who are attracted to the challenges faced by growing companies. But most of all, a small company's development manager must have a wide focus that includes employees, product, process, planning, technology, and customers.

In contrast, large companies typically support multiple existing products, and their processes are usually well defined and relatively static. Policies in large companies typically limit the choices of tools, techniques, and approaches that a development manager can use. The manager's role is more specific and much narrower in scope than the same role in a small firm.

Growing Software serves as a practical, hands-on guide for development managers at small companies that have moved past the initial survival stage and are trying to grow. It is intended to help the manager look ahead and deal with problems before they become unwieldy. The techniques described here are useful for small firms producing software for sale or for a software-as-a-service offering; they are not directed at software consulting businesses. Growing Software provides general advice, specific solutions, and detailed templates and spreadsheets to help development managers put general concepts into direct action.

Because the scope of the book is broad, it is written in a prescriptive style rather than an argumentative onethat is, many recommendations are not supported by exhaustive arguments as to why the techniques work well. Although this information would have greatly increased the scope of the book, it would have made it less readable.

For convenience, I use the terms development manager and development management throughout this book to describe the top software/engineering managerwhether the particular job title is chief technology officer (CTO), vice president of engineering, director of engineering, or senior engineering manager. This person manages software engineers, but he or she might also manage quality assurance, documentation, and project management groups. Although the target audience for this book is the person in charge of all of development, nontechnical managers will also be interested in the problems and solutions described here.