Managers...

Managers these days, need to sit by the side of team leaders and developers, code along with them(I mean do vi of a file, edit, compile..), to completely understand the state of the project and define the direction of its take off. Managers should not confine themselves to just defect matrix collection or calculation of number of hours spent on the project. Managers need to think beyond excel sheets(nicknamed excel sheet managers ;) ) and just expertise in M$ tools would not get them anywhere.

Most managers would consider themselves successful, if they are able to retain the good programmers on their team. Most of these programmers have poor communication skills(either they are challenged or just not interested to speak). To first identify them, the manager has to work along with them. A person may resolve 'n' bugs but might still not be the best person on the team. But a person would have resolved a single bug over several weeks but that does not make him a bad coder. I did rather solve a serious memory issue over several weeks than correct several spelling mistakes in printf statements..

When things drag and the developer is not able to zero in on the problem, fear creeps in. Problem with most outsourced project is the customer is billed by the hour. So the customer has to be answered on the time spent. The developer fears the worst and that is not going to help him in any way. Sometimes for reasons like these, product companies is better than service industry, you just have to answer your company and not multiple companies.

Most of all, the manager has to be well informed and should encourage his team members to work on new tools or explain interesting stuff. When stuck, he should be able to suggest work around/ solutions and not just yap around. When the team member solves a problem this way, the project manager understands the problem well and hence he is able to keep track of the state of the project better.

If you are working for a project manager with all these traits and the job pays well, consider yourself extremely lucky.

Note: The above entry is purely observations made over the past three years and does not refer to anyone in particular. These conclusions are drawn by observing and interacting with several people. Hence the author cannot be nailed on the same ;)