Managing the Unmanageable

The Essential Guide to Effectively Managing Developers So You Can Deliver Better Software—Now Extensively Updated “Lichty and Mantle have assembled a guide that will help you hire, motivate, and mentor a software development team that functions at the highest level. Their rules of thumb and coaching advice form a great blueprint for new and experienced software engineering managers alike.” —Tom Conrad, CTO, Pandora “Reading this book’s nuggets felt like the sort of guidance that I would get from a trusted mentor. A mentor who I not only trusted, but one who trusted me to take the wisdom, understand its limits, and apply it correctly.” —Mike Fauzy, CTO, FauzyLogic Today, many software projects continue to run catastrophically over schedule and budget, and still don’t deliver what customers want. Some organizations conclude that software development can’t be managed well. But it can—and it starts with people. In their extensively updated Managing the Unmanageable, Second Edition, Mickey W. Mantle and Ron Lichty show how to hire and develop programmers, onboard new hires quickly and successfully, and build and nurture highly effective and productive teams. Drawing on over 80 years of combined industry experience, the authors share Rules of Thumb, Nuggets of Wisdom, checklists, and other Tools for successfully leading programmers and teams, whether they’re co-located or dispersed worldwide. This edition adds extensive new Agile coverage, new approaches to recruitment and onboarding, expanded coverage of handling problem employees, and much more. Whether you’re new to software management or you’ve done it for years, you’ll find indispensable advice for handling your challenges and delivering outstanding software. Find, recruit, and hire the right programmers, when you need themManage programmers as the individuals they areMotivate software people and teams to accomplish truly great featsCreate a successful development subculture that can thrive even in a toxic company cultureMaster the arts of managing down and managing upEmbrace your role as a manager who empowers self-directed agile teams to thrive and succeed Register your book for convenient access to downloads, updates, and/or corrections as they become available. See inside book for details.

Mickey W. Mantle has been developing software for more than forty years as a software and hardware product creator, manager, and executive for companies that include Evans & Sutherland, Pixar, Broderbund, and Gracenote. He currently develops mobile/tablet applications, writes, and consults. Ron Lichty has been developing software for thirty years, most of them as a programming manager, director of development, and vice president of products and engineering for companies that include Apple, Fujitsu, Razorfish, and Schwab. He has written four books and hundreds of articles. He consults with startups and companies large and small to unravel the knots in software development and make it hum.