> Before that I have over a decade of software development experience at companies small and large.
Can anyone with actual engineering experience comment? Software development is not engineering.
Can anyone with actual engineering experience comment? Software development is not engineering.
To be fair my industry has CFR mandated management responsibilities, including provision of resources and ensuring effectiveness of the company's quality systems.
But beyond being shielded from all that 'crap' I wouldn't want to deal with, my manager is...
- A resource on technical topics I'm not as familiar with
- A liasion to other groups, eg when I don't think I'm the right person to own something, or I'm hitting roadblocks
- Someone to vent to when other groups 'just don't get it'
- Someone to help prioritize and rebalance when I'm underwater
- Someone to keep shit from flowing downhill onto the engineers
- Someone to buy team lunches
Source: Having spent almost 4 decades on this fun, both on hackety-hack world and engineering world, both as IC and manager.
The role exists for a reason, but the reasons aren't true for every situation, nor is the exact shape of the role the same across teams. These nuances matters very much when you're trying to decide if it should exist or it shouldn't.