General Description
The book “How a Good Developer Can Avoid Becoming a Bad Manager” by Konstantin Borisov is dedicated to one of the most common situations in the IT industry — the transition of a developer into a managerial role. The author examines typical problems programmers face when becoming team leads, project managers, or team leaders.
The book thoroughly covers the main aspects of IT management: team motivation, manager's responsibility, interaction with clients, and workflow organization. The author shows why a successful developer does not automatically become a good manager and what skills need to be developed to effectively manage people and projects.
Separate sections are devoted to the differences between product and outsourcing companies, financial aspects of projects, task estimation, and work progress control. Through real-life cases and practical stories, the author demonstrates typical management mistakes and explains how they can be avoided. The book also discusses issues of feedback, layoffs, distribution of responsibility within the team, and building trust between developers and management.
The material is presented in the form of short chapters and practical stories, which makes the book easy and quick to read. It is intended primarily for IT professionals who are just starting their path in management or are considering a transition from a technical role to a managerial one.
Opinion
A book that is very easy to read and can actually be finished in 2–3 evenings. By itself, it did not carry any special practical value for me, although I still took three pages of notes and jotted down a couple of ideas and tips. Nevertheless, the book will be useful for those who want to try their hand in IT, especially as a manager, because it describes the features of the IT industry, including interaction with clients, differences between product and outsourcing companies, and much more.
