Name: Managing the Unmanageable
ISBN: 9780321822031

Mickey W. Mantle

Ron Lichty

This book has assembled a guide that will help you hire, motivate, and mentor a software development team that functions at the highest level. Their rules of thumb and coaching advice form a great blueprint for new and experienced software engineering managers alike. All too often, software development is deemed unmanageable. The news is filled with stories of projects that have run catastrophically over schedule and budget.

Rules, Tools, and Insights for Managing Software People and Teams

Managing the Unmanageable

“Mantle and Lichty have assembled a guide that will help you hire, motivate, and mentor a software development team that functions at the highest level. Their rules of thumb and coaching advice are great blueprints for new and experienced software engineering managers alike.” —Tom Conrad, CTO, Pandora “I wish I’d had this material available years ago. I see lots and lots of ‘meat’ in here that I’ll use over and over again as I try to become a better manager. The writing style is right on, and I love the personal anecdotes.” —Steve Johnson, VP, Custom Solutions, DigitalFish All too often, software development is deemed unmanageable. The news is filled with stories of projects that have run catastrophically over schedule and budget. Although adding some formal discipline to the development process has improved the situation, it has by no means solved the problem. How can it be, with so much time and money spent to get software development under control, that it remains so unmanageable? In Managing the Unmanageable: Rules, Tools, and Insights for Managing Software People and Teams , Mickey W. Mantle and Ron Lichty answer that persistent question with a simple observation: You first must make programmers and software teams manageable. That is, you need to begin by understanding your people—how to hire them, motivate them, and lead them to develop and deliver great products. Drawing on their combined seventy years of software development and management experience, and highlighting the insights and wisdom of other successful managers, Mantle and Lichty provide the guidance you need to manage people and teams in order to deliver software successfully. Whether you are new to software management, or have already been working in that role, you will appreciate the real-world knowledge and practical tools packed into this guide.

Julien Sobczak

A good book for better managers, but not great managers.

Almost all people I know having “manager” in their job title have learnt management "on the job." Even if there is nothing fundamentally wrong with learning from our mistakes (we all do it), for managers, mistakes always affect other persons. There must be a better way. 

Through this book, co-authors succeeded in sharing their vast experiences, in a highly practical book, full of anecdotes, stories, quotations, and words of wisdom. The book clearly favors breadth over depth and you will get a really good overview of what it means to manage programmers in the real world. A quick look at the table of contents will show you that no topic was left out. Having this book on your desk is like having a mentor to answer (almost) all of your questions. This is a good book for better managers, but not necessarily for great managers.

Indeed, I think great managers need something that is absent from this book. The best management books I’ve read don't try to be so exhaustive, or to be so practical. They focus on making the reader think, delivering principles for him to be better prepared for the unexpected. The contrast is very apparent if I compare with my following reading, _Principles_ by Ray Dalio. It’s not one of my favorite books but nonetheless, it challenges several of my assumptions. I could also cite Trillion Dollar Coach, Creativy Inc., or Simon Sinek’s books. These books may appear less relevant in practice, but they are the books that taught me so much. 

The truth is, to be the manager your team deserves, you probably need both kinds of books. I do not agree with everything that is presented in this book, but I still think it’s a valuable resource for newly-appointed managers.

Managing the Unmanageable Rules, Tools, and Insights for Managing Software People and Teams