Building excellent software is an intricate task that requires a great deal of technical expertise. Managing people who build software is also an intricate task, but the required skillset is different. A manager has to be a good enough developer to be respected, but she/he must also have “soft skills” to finesse interpersonal situations. Instead of a technical challenge, management becomes a way of life and leading. With a particular focus on software engineering, Josh Tyler lends his guidance about building these qualities in one’s self.
At the time of this writing, Tyler himself is a VP of Engineering at a mid-size company building educational software. His daily challenges are recruiting top talent, getting the right fits hired, and then managing them into successful roles. Each of these tasks have distinct pitfalls, and any competent leader needs to learn from the mistakes of others before making her/his own. Tyler is transparent about the skills that he has learned and the mindset he carries into his tasks.
At 150 pages, this book is incredibly concise. It does not waste readers’ time by expansively approaching a topic. That is its strength… and its weakness. It would be nice to explore a particular topic in more depth, but Tyler prefers to mentor readers in how to do his entire job well, not just one component. It took me only a few evenings to read, but I am left wanting more depth. I suppose its depth lies in being about the field of software engineering, not any one area of management.
In my judgment, this book is more geared to managers just starting out and those in a mid-level. Experienced managers might pick up a thing or two, but given limited time, they will likely benefit more from an in-depth exploration of a particular topic. Software management itself is complex and worthy of focused treatments like this, and Tyler does pull off a good job at describing what’s needed. At times, it just would have been nice to go into more depth instead of moving to the next topic.
Building Great Software Engineering Teams: Recruiting, Hiring, and Managing Your Team from Startup to Success
By Josh Tyler
Copyright (c) 2015
Apress
ISBN13 9781484211342
Page Count: 150
Genre: Management, Software
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