Lazycoder

How much is that monkey for?

How much is that monkey for?

So you see my point? Am I the only one who thinks this way, that completely non-tech managers have no space in an IT department? No seriously, except maybe a CIO, every other guy who does more than give out “Vision statements”, needs to be technically cognizant. And then there are so many non-tech managers out there .. am I the only one who thinks that way?

Spoken like a man who has never been managed by a “programmer-turned-manager”.

Seriously, have you ever worked for a programmer who suddenly thought “Hey, this management stuff isn’t so hard.” or “I don’t know why I’m not running my own business. I think I will.”? In my experience, one of two things happens:

1. They maintain their current skills by involving themselves in their projects. Which means that no one ever knows what the status of the project is because no one is managing the project full time. Which is great if it’s a small project. In my mind a ratio of about 1 manager to 10 programmers per project is about right.
2. Their tech skills will erode. Leading you to many wonderful discussions about “How we used to do it.” often ending with “Well, I’m the manager and I think that’s the way we should do it because I KNOW that works.”

Completely non-technical managers aren’t that much fun either. They either have no idea what you are saying and defer all technical judgements up to you, which is always dangerous in my mind. It’s never a good idea, IMO, to have a single person designing an application that will be used by multiple people. Or they think that they are technical and tell you to do wild ass things and don’t think it should take as long as it does to get them done.

update becuz speling is gud