Comments on: Why Managers Are Like Clumsy Storm Troopers

By: Developers are Clone Troopers and Project Managers are … Storm Troopers « Jim 2.0’s Blog

Thu, 20 Mar 2008 19:51:03 +0000

[...] March 20, 2008 by Jim Max Pool of {CodeSqueeze} writes an interesting article titled “Why Managers Are Like Clumsy Storm Troopers“. [...]

By: Robz

Robz — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 06:00:23 +0000

My favorite is when “those that are formerly technical” think they understand how we code and thus make decisions for us without asking us. Then we are left to live with the mess or clean it up.

By: Shawn Oster

Shawn Oster — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 06:34:28 +0000

I’ve always thought being a manager is just another skill like writing code or being a great graphic designer, some people come to it naturally, some work at it and others will always pretty much suck at it. Hence why a great developer has no guarantee of being a great manager of developers or how often great technical managers really suck at the technical bits.

In my mind this also means that managers shouldn’t get paid any more or less than those they manage. They are just a person doing their job and the pay increases should go to those excelling in their positions, great devs or managers or tech support. Organizational hierarchy should not dictate pay hierarchy.

One justification for higher manager salaries is that only their necks are on the line; if a project goes south it’s only the manager that loses face yet this is rarely the case and where it is true I believe it should be changed so the entire team feels like their necks are on the line. A shared feeling of responsibility tends to create a strong team as well as more focused effort.

By: Seth

Seth — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 16:20:07 +0000

I’m a firm believer in technical management – but it’s true, they don’t contribute in the trenches. They aren’t supposed to for the most part. They are supposed to sit in the star destroyers and click on maps – sending me to my doom.

I do think they run a higher risk of being force choked by a sith lord…

Call ‘management’ a promotion if you want ;)