A PM's guide to communicate effectively with software engineers

Re:A PM's guide to communicate effectively with software eng... by freedomben on Monday February 21, 2022 @07:07PM (#30422459)

There's one thing I think you left out: A great PM will defend their team from management. When management wants to do things like pivot from X to Y, or focus on Z to the neglect of W, a great PM will point out that engineers are not fungible, and that such things can hinder motivation, increase frustration, and lead to lower output. When management decides to do it anyway, and get frustrated with the team's lack of progress (especially on product W which management expected would magically stay up and stable), a great PM (in a professional way) reminds them of the history and that decisions have consequences.

Unfortunately a "great PM" will sooner or later have to choose between doing the right thing for their team or the right thing for their career (management does not like to be told no or blamed for any failure). The great PM usually doesn't climb the management chain, so if you are a software engineer with a great PM, please tell them, it may be the only thanks they get.

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Re:A PM's guide to communicate effectively with software eng... by sophrocyne on Monday February 21, 2022 @08:01PM (#30422879)

I agree with you largely, except for one thing - Doing the right thing for their team is the right thing for their career, whether current management sees it or not.

There are hundreds of companies who will happily have you be a great PM or leader at their company if your current leadership team is more concerned with promoting sycophants.

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Re:A PM's guide to communicate effectively with software eng... by hydrakai on Tuesday February 22, 2022 @02:47AM (#30425087)

I would say that the PM needs to do the best for the company, which sometimes is defending their team, but others is making their team understand a recent company pivot/shift.

A PM without the support of his team is dead. But if he doesn't get along with management, he and his team are also dead.

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Re:A PM's guide to communicate effectively with software eng... by freedomben on Tuesday February 22, 2022 @01:45PM (#30431793)

Yes I totally agree with you. For clarity when I said "defending their team" I didn't necessarily mean act as a representative to argue their views to management. I've seen many times when what a team wanted would have been really bad for business, which in the end serves nobody.

In one case I actually saw a great engineer destroy his company by basically doing what he wanted to do rather than what management wanted. He was so irreplaceable that they had little choice but to allow it. In the end he turned the codebase into a nightmare of half-baked untested crap that not even he wanted to work on it. That has stuck in my mind for years as something I want to avoid.

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