The engineering executive's primer / Will Larson.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Larson, Will (Software engineer), author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Software engineering--Management.

Software engineering.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (336 pages)

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Sebastopol, CA : O'Reilly Media, Inc., [2024]

Summary:

As an engineering manager, you almost always have someone in your company to turn to for advice: a peer on another team, your manager, or even the head of engineering. But who do you turn to if you're the head of engineering? Engineering executives have a challenging learning curve, and many folks excitedly start their first executive role only to leave frustrated within the first 18 months. In this book, author Will Larson shows you ways to obtain your first executive job and quickly ramp up to meet the challenges you may not have encountered in non-executive roles: measuring engineering for both engineers and the CEO, company-scoped headcount planning, communicating successfully across a growing organization, and figuring out what people actually mean when they keep asking for a "technology strategy."

Contents:

Cover

Copyright

Table of Contents

Preface

What This Book is Not

Navigating This Book

Clarifying Terms

O'Reilly Online Learning

How to Contact Us

Acknowledgments

Chapter 1. Getting the Job

Why Pursue an Executive Role?

One of One

Finding Internal Executive Roles

Finding External Executive Roles

Interview Process

Negotiating the Contract

Deciding to Take the Job

Not Getting the Job

Summary

Chapter 2. Your First 90 Days

What to Learn First

Making the Right System Changes

Tasks for Your First 90 Days

Learning and Building Trust

Create an External Support System

Understanding Organizational Health and Process

Understanding Hiring

Understanding Systems of Execution

Understanding the Technology

Chapter 3. Writing Your Engineering Strategy

Defining Strategy

Example Strategy

Diagnosis

Guiding Policies

Coherent Actions

Writing Process

When to Write the Strategy

Dealing with Missing Company Strategies

Establishing the Diagnosis

Structuring Your Guiding Policies

Maintaining Your Guiding Policies' Altitude

Selecting Coherent Actions

Shouldn't Strategy Be Bottoms-Up?

Chapter 4. How to Plan

The Default Planning Process

Planning's Three Discrete Phases

Phase 1: Establishing Your Financial Plan

The Reasoning Behind Engineering's Role in the Financial Plan

Why Should Financial Planning Be an Annual Process?

Attributing Costs to Business Units

Why Can Financial Planning Be So Contentious?

Should Engineering Headcount Growth Limit Company Headcount Growth?

Informing Organizational Structure

Aligning the Hiring Plan and Recruiting Bandwidth

Phase 2: Determining Your Functional Portfolio Allocation

Why Do We Need a Functional Portfolio Allocation?

Keep the Allocation Fairly Steady

Be Mindful of Allocation Granularity

Don't Over-index on Early Results

Phase 3: Agreeing on the Roadmap

Roadmapping with Disconnected Planners

Roadmapping Concrete and Unscoped Work

Roadmapping in Too Much Detail

Pitfalls to Avoid

Planning as Ticking Checkboxes

Planning as Inefficient Resource Allocator

Planning as Rewarding Shiny Projects

Planning as Diminishing Ownership

Summary

Chapter 5. Creating Useful Organizational Values

What Problems Do Values Solve?

Should Engineering Organizations Have Values?

What Makes a Value Useful?

How Are Engineering Values Distinct from a Technology Strategy?

When and How to Roll Out Values

Some Values I've Found Useful

Chapter 6. Measuring Engineering Organizations

Measuring for Yourself

Measure to Plan

Measure to Operate

Measure to Optimize

Measure to Inspire and Aspire

Measuring for Stakeholders

Measure for Your CEO or Your Board

Measure for Finance

Notes:

OCLC-licensed vendor bibliographic record.

ISBN:

9781098149475

1098149475

OCLC:

1417359017