May 7, 2010 Posted by Andy Branch on May 7, 2010 in Project Management, Resource Management | 0 comments

Project Managers on the Production Team

During production I’ve seen a lot of value in both acting as manager and developer. In fact, that’s almost always the way I’d prefer it with the projects I manage at Rain. After my first year of being both a frontend web developer and PM on multiple projects a coworker questioned this method. He was of the opinion that producers or PMs should never be involved in the actual production work. I’ve thought of this often since, but am still perplexed at how this could ever be a bad thing. Having a hand in the actual development provides a lot of added benefits to management. Most importantly are these three:

1. Knowing the codebase - Since my hands are in the code and I am seeing/understanding its progression, I know exactly the state of the project at all times. I know where we need to allocate more resources to fast-track a task. I know where the critical paths are and how we’re handling them day-to-day. I can give an update on where things are at at any moment. I can answer client’s technical questions or get ours answered without wasting my key developer’s time.
2. Peer respect - Since I am not supervising from some “lofty, exalted, I’m-the-dude-in-charge” sort of way, but am actually helping the effort, I gain more respect from the team as only a peer can. One of the greatest compliments I’ve ever received was the anonymous employee/peer review feedback which stated “I wish we had two of Andy: one to do frontend development full time and one to manage full time.”
3. Staying frosty - By continuing to develop and staying current on new technology I am better equipped to come up with technology solutions for clients. Managers who are more distant from technology are, I think, severely limited in their ability to find creative and innovative solutions since their perspective of what is possible comes through the lens of a laymen.

There is also one other added benefit that has more to do with personal risk management. My uncle (a long-time government worker/programmer) said one of the greatest dangers for developers going into management is for them losing their coding skills. Since in technology company managers tend to be “home-grown” or raised up from the existing body of employees rather than brought-in, when companies go under managers who got their start in development are often forced to go back to coding when seeking new employment. Keeping our development skills sharp so that we will always be competitive in the most currently sought-after positions means we’ll always have employment options. This peace-of-mind alone is worth the 5-10 hours a week I spend in actual development.

Tags: project manager / developer