How to manage software developers

They say: "Give your software developer time to develop the program." Is it true?

It depends. In a fast-paced company, when faced with problems, developers have to seek help immediately. Whereas, for complex developmental job that foresee a longer timeline, you may need to give them time to explore, trial and error. 

Here are a few ways you can do to manage your developers well!

1) Know your stuffs

Depending on the character of the team, some developers tend to propose a long timeline to complete a task with the intention of "buffer". It is important you seek understanding via;

i) asking other developers and colleagues if such job is time-consuming

ii) ask the developer to identify the processes of their intended implementation and seek clarity on "showstopper."

iii) read more about the task and identify ways if you can negotiate the shorten their timeline proposed.

iv) help them priortise if they are managing multiple projects

2) Give clear instructions

Provide the developer with a list of tasks and relevant timelines. This will be the checklist that will guide them with their work. It is crucial to break down a big job into chunks of smaller ones to help them achieve the goals in a step-by-step process.

Set up meetings to understand what can be done and identify such instructions together with them. You may have them be in the discussions with clients to help them understand the situation better.

3) Prioritisation

When there is a sudden surge in demand, developers tend to feel overwhelmed suddenly and unsure of which project to focus on. It is important as manager/project coordinator to keep in close contact with clients and identify which project could be prioritised over another.

This often taps on your skills to repurpose more manageable tasks upfront to meet customer's expectations while buying more time for your team. It would help if you can also communicate frequently when prioritisation changed.

4) Outsource or hire if necessary

Depending on budgetry, confidentiality and difficulty, decide with your team, who often have more technical depths on areas that could be outsourced or delegated to new hires.

Ask questions such as "what solutions do you proposed?", "is your limitation by software or not enough people?", 

if not enough people, "can these solutions be done by someone else?", "do we need a junior, senior, or can we outsource to freelancers?".

If you finally decide to hire, you need to consider the time taken for your team to train a new employee and guide them on the right track.

5) Provide support for training

Such support depends on the roles to decide on depths in technicality. As a manager/project coordinator, you should gear yourself to understand software architectures and new features your team could potentially adopt. 

Ease of implementation should be in your consideration.

For developers, you should allocate resources to help them acquire technical know-how to help them feel more competent with their job. This training should be related to your current projects and future potential ones.

You need to discuss with team leaders who have technical depths on the type of training to go for.

6) Burnout management

An employee who is burned out can have negative effects; such as

i) making unintended careless mistakes

ii) unable to resolve problems effectively

iii) more prone to being hot-tempered

iv) takes longer time to accomplish a task

v) reduced morale

Although treating your team frequently to free meals is viable for the short term, long term burnout is still a problem. As manager/project coordinator, you need to decide if hiring is a viable option, especially when you sense your team's morale is dropping.