Become an Effective Software Engineering Manager: How to Be the Leader Your Development Team Needs
Original price was: €46.€39Current price is: €39.
Price: $45.95 - $39.34
(as of Sep 24, 2025 23:27:53 UTC – Details)
Software startups make global headlines every day. As technology companies succeed and grow, so do their engineering departments. In your career, you’ll may suddenly get the opportunity to lead teams: to become a manager. But this is often uncharted territory. How can you decide whether this career move is right for you? And if you do, what do you need to learn to succeed? Where do you start? How do you know that you’re doing it right? What does “it” even mean? And isn’t management a dirty word? This book will share the secrets you need to know to manage engineers successfully.
Going from engineer to manager doesn’t have to be intimidating. Engineers can be managers, and fantastic ones at that. Cast aside the rhetoric and focus on practical, hands-on techniques and tools. You’ll become an effective and supportive team leader that your staff will look up to.
Start with your transition to being a manager and see how that compares to being an engineer. Learn how to better organize information, feel productive, and delegate, but not micromanage. Discover how to manage your own boss, hire and fire, do performance and salary reviews, and build a great team. You’ll also learn the psychology: how to ship while keeping staff happy, coach and mentor, deal with deadline pressure, handle sensitive information, and navigate workplace politics.
Consider your whole department. How can you work with other teams to ensure best practice? How do you help form guilds and committees and communicate effectively? How can you create career tracks for individual contributors and managers? How can you support flexible and remote working? How can you improve diversity in the industry through your own actions? This book will show you how.
Great managers can make the world a better place. Join us.
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The Pragmatic Programmers publishes hands-on, practical books on classic and cutting-edge software development and engineering management topics. We help professionals solve real-world problems, hone their skills, and advance their careers.
Publisher : Pragmatic Bookshelf
Publication date : June 30, 2020
Edition : 1st
Language : English
Print length : 398 pages
ISBN-10 : 1680507249
ISBN-13 : 978-1680507249
Item Weight : 2.31 pounds
Dimensions : 7.5 x 0.82 x 9.25 inches
Best Sellers Rank: #312,781 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #45 in Business Project Management (Books) #48 in Technical Project Management (Books) #1,218 in Leadership & Motivation
Customer Reviews: 4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 318 ratings var dpAcrHasRegisteredArcLinkClickAction; P.when(‘A’, ‘ready’).execute(function(A) { if (dpAcrHasRegisteredArcLinkClickAction !== true) { dpAcrHasRegisteredArcLinkClickAction = true; A.declarative( ‘acrLink-click-metrics’, ‘click’, { “allowLinkDefault”: true }, function (event) { if (window.ue) { ue.count(“acrLinkClickCount”, (ue.count(“acrLinkClickCount”) || 0) + 1); } } ); } }); P.when(‘A’, ‘cf’).execute(function(A) { A.declarative(‘acrStarsLink-click-metrics’, ‘click’, { “allowLinkDefault” : true }, function(event){ if(window.ue) { ue.count(“acrStarsLinkWithPopoverClickCount”, (ue.count(“acrStarsLinkWithPopoverClickCount”) || 0) + 1); } }); });
11 reviews for Become an Effective Software Engineering Manager: How to Be the Leader Your Development Team Needs
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Original price was: €46.€39Current price is: €39.
Ignas –
One of the best books on management
If you are new manager, already doing it for some time or even long time manager – take the book and read it. This is the book you can read chapter by chapter when needed. I found ir very helpful when I started and also found multiple times it very useful when was going through difficult situations. Book is very practical and with almost zero bullshit. Very recommended.
Scott J. Pearson –
A non-technical tutorial to managing software engineering efforts
Managing software engineering efforts is a difficult task. One needs a thorough knowledge of authoring software, which itself is a rare, time-consuming accomplishment. Almost all general managers do not have an in-depth knowledge of programming (though many assume they do!). A few of the best software developers are promoted into a managerial role and have to figure out what to do on the job. Much literature on general management topics exists, but few writings center on the notoriously fickle yet narrow job of writing code. James Sanierâs book attempts to provide one of the few guides in this domain.This bookâs intended audience certainly lies on the side of those beginning with managerial tasks. In concept, it provides a comprehensive overview for the first year in the new role. Choosing to provide quick tutorials, it avoids going into details on specific topics. At times, it makes generalizations for the sake of simplicity and brevity, like when it describes simple career tracks. Those who already have advanced knowledge might find these simplifications a bit trite, but beginners will appreciate the sensitivity for orienting newbies.The book is relatively non-technical in that it fundamentally describes people-oriented tasks instead of, say, financial approaches that involve algorithms. It tends to divide programmers into sociological categories, like a cathedral constructor versus a bazaar browser. Again, these distinctions help, especially at the beginning, but they donât provide a ton of nuance.The writing style is accessible to general readers, and endnotes are provided for further research. Not many IT-specific terms are used, but prior exposure to a team that produces software is assumed. I took away a couple of new concepts, such as a mentorship matrix and the Dunning-Kruger effect, but I will explore these in more detail through other writings since only overviews were provided here. This approach fits very much in line with what Iâve come to expect from the Pragmatic Programmer series. It helpfully fills a niche for people who want a non-theoretical approach to learning programming, a unique approach thatâs both useful and needed.
David Stewart –
A must read
This book is a fountain of knowledge. Iâve experienced many things in book during my career but never had the ability to put them into context. Iâve also learned a lot of new things that Iâm excited to try out. The content here is valuable to managers regardless of industry. The strategies discussed are concrete and applicable.
cerebrum –
Must read for new/aspiring engineering managers
This book has very great insight and described good strategies for new EMs. Itâs also helpful if you donât have the EM experience but interviewing for a position.
Gergely Orosz –
Essential for new and less experienced EMs, useful for experienced ones
I’m an experienced engineering manager, and I manage frontline managers. This book is one of the two books I give as required reading for new managers in my team – together with the Manager’s Path. I’ve gotten several actionable ideas on the second part of the book on more advanced topics.What I most like about the book is that it is a “modern”, 2020 take on engineering management – with the focus being on the “hard to get right the first time” parts. I have yet to read a book on engineering management that covers 1:1s, performance reviews, hiring and laying off, diversity & inclusion, workplace politics, remote work, and the need for managers to relax. I have definitely not seen all of these in one place. As I read, I kept nodding along with the experiences and advice. It’s similar advice to what I’d give to anyone wanting to build a great team with a strong developer culture, being a thoughtful manager.I strongly recommend this book to people just starting – or about to start – their first engineering management role. There is a wealth of practical and genuinely good advice written. It is the kind of advice you get in your first two years as a manager – assuming you have one or two great mentors and are surrounded by multiple peers who continuously give you well-intended feedback. Which is not the case for many people. How do you manage your perception? How do you decide what information to broadcast? How do you do good 1:1s? Do perf reviews? Hire? Let people go? I also find myself looking these topics up when I am mentoring less experienced managers, drawing inspiration on activities to suggest for these managers to take on to grow.More experienced managers like myself can also take away good parts, especially in the second part of the book. How do you manage high-stakes “The Eye of Sauron” projects? How do you get the news through the grapevine? How do you make workplace politics work for you? What are ways to communicate well within a larger group? How should you design career ladders? What about diversity, inclusion, remote working and work-life balance?
Amazon Customer –
Great book about engineering management but is too political in some chapters and content
This is a fantastic book about engineering management and is a must read for any software engineer who wants to become an engineering manager. But beware, some chapters and content is overly political and leans towards certain political group. Otherwise is a good book if you don’t pay attention to that.
Aman jain –
Very nicely and in detail explains about day to day activities of EM, VERY GOOD if you are new to the field and want to some experience on how this role works
Matteo –
A light read about engineering management. It gives hints about common practices, still becoming a manager requires innate attitude and a lot of practice.
Gino Cerro –
Very relevant content for managers of all levels.
Amazon ã«ã¹ã¿ãã¼ –
I strongly recommend this book to people looking at their first engineering managers and more experienced managers.
Leonardo Nascimento –
Livro novo, mas chegou com amassados profundos na lombada, orelha na parte inferior das páginas e uma mancha preta na parte superior da capa. Provavelmente causado pelo transporte pois estava solto dentro do pacote.