Author: Slava Imeshev
Effective One-on-Ones: Don’t Skip Your 1:1s
The more 1:1s you miss, the longer will be your next one. One-on-ones are the most effective people management tool. When it's used right, it's allows engineering managers building lasting relationships with their direct reports that pay in great performance. When done wrong, 1:1s can become ineffective or even harmful. The first episode in the series The Laws of One-On-Ones we talk about the impact of skipped 1:1s and practical techniques to avoid missing 1:1s, for managers and their direct reports.
Engineering Process: Gap Analysis
Gap Analysis is an effective approach to identifying challenges in the areas of engineering processes, people and tools. Gap Analysis allows engineering managers to address challenges that prevent the team from delivering high quality software on time. In this podcast we provide a step-by-step guidance for conducting Gap Analysis and resolving the identified gaps.
Engineering Process: Think-Plan-Execute
Think-Plan-Execute is an effective technique for getting things done. In this podcast we discuss how it helps engineering managers and software engineers to deliver working software on time, with quality, and provide practical examples of how to implement Think-Plan-Execute.
Developing Skills: Guided Self-Study
In this podcast we share the practice of guided self-study, discuss how it helps busy managers to elevate team’s skills, and provide practical recommendations on how to run the guided self-study practice. In the end, we share an approach to install the guided self study at your team and provide a checklist that engineering managers can use to self-check that they are executing guided self-study effectively.
Engineering Process: Effective Design Reviews
In this podcast we share the practice of effective software design reviews, discuss why they are important and provide practical recommendations to engineering managers on how to run design review meetings that deliver high quality software architectures. We provide guidance for executing one-on-one reviews, accommodating input, running team reviews and public reviews, and sharing the final designs. In the end, we share an approach to install the effective design reviews and a checklist that engineering managers can use to self-check that they are running their design reviews effectively.
Effective Engineering Meetings
In this podcast we define effective effective engineering meetings, discuss why they are important and share practical recommendations to engineering managers on how to run meetings that deliver results. We provide practical guidance for setting meeting goals, defining agendas, preparing participants, building invite lists, managing the meetings and sharing the results. In the end, we share a checklist that engineering managers can use to self-check that they are running their meetings effectively.
Welcome to The Effective Engineering Manager Podcast
In this inaugural episode we share why we decided to start the Effective Engineering Manager podcast. Our motivation was to share 25+ years of our combined engineering management experience in getting stuff done. We provide proven solutions and best practices to software engineering managers who are responsible for building and maintaining effective engineering teams that allow them to deliver software on time and with quality. Practices we share apply to all levels, from frontline engineering managers to directors and above.