Common challenges every engineering manager face

• Weak SDLC and visibility challenge: Weak SDLC is known to be the silent velocity killer. Especially in today’s times, when it is driven by the continuous improvement culture and ongoing iterations.

The major challenge faced by engineering managers is they are unable to figure out the ‘What’ and ‘Why’. Hence, they need to keep it in check and test it at its earliest. 

But, this is not easy as it seems. The biggest barrier to high SDLC blockers is due to limited visibility. It results in unsustainable prioritization, ambiguous SDLC processes, and broken development workflows. 

Visibility is necessary as it correlates with agility and helps them perform efficiently. It assures engineering managers get a clear picture of each phase of SDLC. And when it is taken into consideration for a longer period, it helps in prioritizing goals and data-driven decisions. Engineering managers need to have full-fledged visibility of the issue. So, that they can allocate responsibilities wisely. 

Pro-tip: Get complete visibility on your SDLC & cycle time breakdown & identify blockers with Typo.

• Developers’ burnout: Burnout has become a common workplace phenomenon among developers. Due to longer hours at work, they are indulging in presenteeism. It not only reduces productivity but delays the outcome as well. 

The visibility, as mentioned above, is needed here too. To help in figuring out the reason and knowing what to do afterward. But, visibility is already a top-most challenge. The burnout aspect comes a little late to the engineering managers.

A few of the burnout causes include: 

• • Overwhelming ADHOC requests
  • Shipping codes, 
  • Incident alerts 
  • Debugging beyond working hours

It is also been seen that the developers don’t have clarity about their roles. It increases their working hours and tasks get postponed. 

They must ensure that developers get the requested time off and a healthy work schedule. They should also understand that goals should be realistic with a proper action plan. But, this can only be possible after the visibility challenge is sorted. It will help in resolving the issue quickly before it becomes a bigger problem.

• Poor communication skills: The most overlooked challenge that engineering managers face is communication. It usually happens that there are alignment issues and context switching between the developers’ teams. And without proper communication, there will be a lack of clarity about the same. 

Engineering managers also get confused to have over or too little communication. While over-communication can be a sign of micromanaging. Less communication leads to a lack of clear understanding of the work. 

Engineering managers need to find a balance between taking status updates and resolving development barriers. Even having excellent technical abilities, poor communication can be the biggest hurdle.

They can set up a meeting including relevant information, agenda, and expected output. Use automated stand-up tools for knowing daily tasks, progress, and blockers.

• Measuring team success: Engineering managers have the wrong approach to measuring success in terms of throughput. Rather they should focus on the volume of software being pushed to production. 

They usually use agile methodologies without empowering the developers. When deadlines aren’t met, engineering managers only focus on specific pain points. They avoid looking at the issues that can be the cause of long-term issues. 

But it is halted as not all developers have completed their targets. Codes were required to be released but now, it’s delayed due to some developers. 

But, when looking only at the output, it may seem like everything was delayed. Instead, this was not the case! 

Engineering managers must measure success on the basis of three things. It includes: 

• • Engineering metrics: Such metrics track the performance of engineering systems/processes. In these metrics, the following should be measured: 
    • Merge request rate
    • Cycle time 
    • Throughput 
    • Commit to deploy 

• • Agile metrics: Under these metrics, different sprint stages are measured. It comprises of: 
    • Sprint burndown 
    • Team velocity 
    • Epic burndown 
    • Lead time 

• • Morale metrics: These metrics are often overlooked. They help in tracking the engagement and satisfaction of your employees.
    • Code quality confidence 
    • Individual and team morale metrics 

• Managing multigenerational teams: In today’s times, there are different generations of groups that are working together. It is a positive sign but has its own sets of difficulties too. These four generations are Boomers, Gen X, Millennials, and Gen Z. They have their own working styles, career ambitions, and motivators. 

‘One size fits all’ that engineering managers usually go for isn’t the right approach in these cases. 

No matter how small this challenge sounds, it can have a negative impact on the outcome. 

Engineering managers can break down the team into smaller groups with a focused plan. These groups can be divided on common grounds. It includes the working style, experience, strengths, and so on. There can also be tools and resources that you can distribute accordingly. Such as a few traditional logging and APM tools that can be used best by the old generations. While new ones can find them difficult to use. 

Also, the common ground for discussing with all of them can include: 

• • Team mission
  • Alliance 
  • Coding guidelines 
  • Definition of ready and done 
  • Testing strategies 
  • Bugs severity levels