How to measure a good technical department Leader? In practical work scenarios, there is often such a debate: a good technical Leader must be a technical master OR a good technical Leader should have excellent project management ability. Behind the debate is a question of how to balance technical and project management capabilities. Before discussing this issue, let’s first define what is the leader of the technical department? Or what is his job? What is the role of r&d project management?
In The Book “The Manager’s Path”, The growth process of technical managers is divided into Mentor (Mentor), Tech Lead (technical leader) and Manager (Manager of technical team). The difference between them and Tech Lead lies in that Managers no longer focus on the technical field, but also manage the team, make direction and make decisions), Tech Senior Leadership (refers to the Senior technical Leadership team of an enterprise, such as CTO, TECHNICAL VP, technical director, engineering director, etc.).
The book explains the definition and responsibilities of technology managers at all levels, from technical mentors who manage new hires to ctos.
When a technical manager reaches the Tech Lead stage, he or she begins to face the problem of balancing “technical skills” with “project management skills”.
Tech Lead has a certain technical strength, but not necessarily the highest technical strength of the team, and, more importantly, he needs to have good internal and external communication skills, able to correctly analyze the priority task and eliminate obstacles to promote project success, desire and ability to help the team to continuously improve and grow together. This is not only a technical post, but also a leadership post. A technical person who only wants to study code writing and is not willing to communicate with others, even if his technical strength is very top, he will not be a good technical manager.
A leader, responsible for a (software) development team, Who spends at least 30 percent of their time writing code with the team. — Talking with Tech Leads
A good Tech Lead needs to be responsible for the entire development team. In addition to writing code, he or she needs to make greater use of his or her expertise to help the team develop and grow. When a technician moves from engineer to technical manager, his focus shifts from writing good code to empowering the team, taking a broader view of the project and ultimately contributing to its success. Tech Leads may even have the ability to play multiple roles in order to accomplish this.
1. System architect and business analyst
This requires Tech Leads to be familiar with the overall system architecture and how to design complex software, just like systems architects. Also, like a business analyst, you need to understand the business requirements and know how to implement them.
2. Project planner
Tech Lead requires effective planning of projects from a team perspective, breaking down, prioritizing, and delegating tasks so that team members can develop in a more efficient manner.
3. Software developers and team managers
In the software development stage, Tech Lead still needs to participate in code writing, but more importantly, it is responsible for the smooth progress of the whole project, tracking the progress of the project, discovering the possible risks of the project in time, and helping the team remove obstacles through internal and external communication. After the project, lead the team to summarize experience and make continuous improvement.
Being a good technical manager is not an easy thing. Technical skills can help you understand system architecture, business requirements and how to achieve them. On top of this, interpersonal skills, team management skills and project management skills are also crucial.
The above answers are mostly brought by the position of Tech Lead. When technical managers grow to a higher stage, they need to expand their multi-dimensional abilities such as technical vision, industry vision and business thinking. What are The responsibilities of technical managers at each stage and how to advance them? If you are interested, you can read The book “The Manager’s Path”.
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Excellent technical managers will use tools to digitize and automate R&D project management, making project management more efficient and scientific, and promoting good team collaboration. ONES enterprise r & D management tools, providing r & D management solutions covering the whole process of r & D, to help managers plan projects reasonably, track project progress, and promote the efficient collaboration of various roles in software development, to ensure sustainable and high-quality project delivery.