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Discussion on: Should Technical Managers Be Able To Code?

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mfurmaniuk profile image
Michael

Been doing this for 30+ years and while I can't say I am the best coder around, some on my Team are better but that is why I hired them, I can read and be technically proficient enough to help scope work with accuracy. Understanding the technical aspects of a Team you manage I believe helps in demoing the work, as you can speak about it without the jargon but also provide the technical and business value.

I still like to take care of things from time to time, as it keeps me feeling up to date, but I don't think its going to be a full time job and at times skill suffers from that. I have recently interviewed for/looked at jobs both as Manager and Director level and a lot of the ones I have seen, or come to me, do have an aspect of coding around them.

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zirkelc profile image
Chris Cook

In a fast changing environment like software engineering, it takes up a lot of time to stay up to date on the latest technologies, frameworks, tools, or whatever.

I think managers do not need to know the technical details behind every single piece of technologies, but they must understand the underlying principles. And, in order to understand that I think they must have worked in that field as en engineer before, otherwise they won't fully grasp it in my opinion.