Engineering Management for the Rest of Us

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All in all, this work is packed with tangible advice and tools to manage software engineering teams in this day and age.

Encourage Collaboration and Teamwork: Fostering a collaborative environment is key in engineering management. Though the book is meant to address people in management, individual contributors are welcome to read the book as well- perhaps you need to manage up and need some tools to help guide the conversation, perhaps you just want a peek at other concerns within the business- everyone is invited to the conversation. I read it slowly but with great attention, took lots of notes and pondered over it, went back and forth, reread specific sections when they were particularly relevant to me. I confess that some advices in part 3 (the one more into "engineering") sound horrible to me, quite misaligned with the way I understand product development based on software. Empathize and Support Your Team: As an engineering manager, it’s vital to understand and empathize with your team members.I had the chance to have a leader position and to be honest, looking back at that time, I totally ruined it. Have you ever heard the phrase " when you think you're 90% of the way there, you're really only halfway there. The book has been edited and compiled as a cohesive whole, and includes a few chapters not publicly available. I wrote this book because there's so much no one told me about management that I wished I would have known.

Ideas around understanding team members values, motivating team members, encouraging collaboration, managing conflict, working with management, managing yourself and so on are well-thought out and placed in the book. Drawing on her extensive experience, Drasner provides practical advice for those making this transition. The author begins with an overview of personal values and then delves into the importance of trust, happiness, and fostering a sense of teamwork. Maybe my expectations from Sarah were to high but I felt some topics were discussed too lightly, almost as stating common sense for people that have a few year of experience working in teams.I see this book becoming a reference book for many details, especially regarding organising my work life and improving my relations with colleagues.

I recently finished reading "Engineering Management for the Rest of Us" and I have to say, it was a game-changer for me.So many challenges and learnings that helped me grow a tonne in that seemingly short period of time. A lot of Engineering Managers and leaders studied for years and years to become the best Engineer they possibly could be. Build Relationships with Stakeholders: Building strong relationships with stakeholders is a significant aspect of an engineering manager’s role. It's imperative that we as managers learn as much as we can and work on ourselves, so that our teams may enjoy a healthy working life and strong relationships.