What is the best resource for learning to lead a software team? I work for a 4 person team within a small company of 60 poeple. Recently my team lead has left the company which left me taking the lead of the group. I'd like to modernize the way we work and develop software. What are the best resources for learning good management practises? From leading a group to implementing good coding practises. |
- Shipping Greatness
- Managing Humans
- Team Genius
Coding practices are hard and team specific. 60 people company is small enough where things change fast so if you make "coding practices" too tight and restrictive then some people will be unhappy and unproductive. Good start:
- have linter to check for basic mistakes and perform code formatting
- do some testing (integration tests are good because most problems happen between modules and not within modules). Code coverage is a divisive topic but I personally find it useful to understand what parts of software are not well tested.
- Build/deployment dashboards for everyone to see. If you break the build your name is shown as a shame factor etc. Many years ago when I was young and dumb and at a startup, you had to take a shot and run a mile if you break the build. Worked wonders to keep things stable.
- establish some code review culture. As company grows you'll probably eventually need to pass some compliance requirements. Those usually require you to code review anything that goes to production. So you can't go wrong with: each merge to master needs to be reviewed by someone. It's a bit annoying for a small company but will pay off in the future. If you don't want to go that far then at least identify critical files in the code and require any changes to them to be reviewed.
What separates good lead/manager from bad one is caring. By posting this question you already show that you care, which means you are on the path to becoming good lead/manager :)
https://randsinrepose.com/archives/shields-down/
https://randsinrepose.com/archives/bored-people-quit/
https://randsinrepose.com/links/2015/01/14/ask-them-how-they...
What?
PS: In similar situation as OP, leading team of 4 jr software engg.
A wrote up a few links to resource I found useful at the start of the year http://zoenolan.org/blog/2021/02/resources-for-new-managers/
* Writing. I have worked with many developers that have a phobia of writing anything down. The ability to write down precise guidance in finite simplified ordered steps separates the adults from the children in the room unlike any of factor.
The First 90 Days - good book for planning out any transition to a new role.
The Manager's Path - basic primer for leading in tech
Accelerate - If you're inclined to measure how well your team does.