Questions tagged [technical-leader]

This tag is for questions that are related to a leader's involvement in the technical arena.

Some project managers are non-technical and are largely responsible for driving the forward progress of the project. These project managers will focus on communication between departments, communication with clients, and communications with managers and stakeholders.

Technical project managers sometimes face problems that are uniquely different than those faced by non-technical project managers. Since many project managers come from a technical background, they will have questions regarding how to deal with what some might consider to be their technical Achilles heel.

Example topics that fall under this tag include asking questions such as:

How technical should a Project Manager be?

Do technical leaders compete with project managers?

How to Avoid Micro-Managing a Software Development Team?

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How to Avoid Micro-Managing a Software Development Team?

I've managed a few projects over the last few years, and one of the biggest challenges I face is avoiding becoming a micro-manager. I worked with a team once where I worked with a group of software engineers, and I was in the PM role. When I…
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How technical should a Project Manager be?

Consider a software project involving a bunch of developers of mixed experience. The PM has the delivery responsibility for the project, but undertakes this through the team members. When the developers give an estimate for a technical task, how…
Raghuram
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Do technical leaders compete with project managers?

Technical leaders in our projects are competing with project managers. Or in more general aspect, is it a problem if someone with greater domain specific knowledge tends to dominate in project or become an informal PM? If a person with technical…
pixel
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Any tips on how to 'sell' the necessity of dealing with technical debt to nontechnical stakeholders?

A number of stakeholders do not quite understand the necessity of dealing with technical debt preferring new features on top of not very maintainable code. Development is sometimes seen as kids who just want to play the coolest toys. Can anyone…
G33K
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What role should a technical architect play in Project Management?

I've recently been given the role of Technical Architect in my organization (I will also be project managing some projects and developing if the 10-12 senior developers are all too busy). I'm wondering whether a technical architect should have a…
amelvin
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What's the difference between a Team Lead and a Team Manager?

Full disclosure: I am not a project manager. However, no other group on stack exchange seemed more likely to be able to comment constructively. In the company where I am about to begin work, each development team has an architect/team lead and a…
Vanessa Williams
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Solution to scary programming/project management situation?

I'm a newbie programmer in a troubling situation and wondered if anyone knew best practices for dealing with this type of project management problem. After a rough job-search, I finally found a contract job to port an arcane system from an old OS to…
neoleo
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How should I get work from someone who "Talks a good game" but won't deliver?

Background: I worked for an organisation that delivered services to a number of public sector clients, geographically dispersed. A series of security-related changes were required to allow one such client to comply with centrally-mandated security…
Iain9688
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What to do with work not on the board?

TL;DR: At some point, someone on the team will have work which can justifiably not go on the board. How is this handled in a sprint team when it is a long running thing? Our team's technical leader has a number of things to be working on to support…
Matt W
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Splitting PM responsibility between technical lead and non-technical PM on an agile project?

In practical terms, how do you suggest that a technical lead (me) work with a non-technical PM who is responsible for multiple projects? How should dependencies between stories, and external dependencies, be identified, discussed, planned for,…
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How much independence should project managers have?

As each software project has its team who work on it, this team is considered somehow a "separate body" within the company. Team members have their assignments, their vision and expectations from the project. Of course, number of questions arise…
saakian
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How do you handle a tech lead that takes over PO/PM role? (Unwanted)

Situation: mobile team working with Scrumban on an app. Other products developed in the company. The lead (who works on more teams), redistributed resources in the team without informing any of the POs. He decided our processes are stupid, planning…
Andreea
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How to transition from programmer to project manager?

I'm a programmer at a small company who's used to receiving projects by someone saying in a meeting: "make an e-commerce website," and then I'll just take it upon myself to do it. The only requirements I receive are the ones I ask for. We're…
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Can an inexperienced person be a project manager?

What is the value of experience in a role of a Project Manager (Technical Manager). The problems I am facing is: During assigning tasks I do not know about dependencies. I have to rely on what my developer says. I do not know how to set a project…
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Should development team leaders be line managers?

In a development team with a leader, should this leader be a line manager or is it better to separate the two roles? How much admin/HR should a hands-on leader actually do before it becomes the responsibility of somebody else?
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