In many organizations, corporate management tends to install executives who speak their language, meaning non-engineers or individuals with a limited engineering background, into engineering management. In my experience, this never works.
It is generally true that most engineers (myself included) are not good managers either. I think that this probably has to do with the fact that individuals with management talent usually have career alternatives with a greater return on effort than engineering. Nonetheless...
| Individuals with both management skills and technical competence do exist, and they are the only kind of people who can competitively operate an engineering organization of significant size. |
Engineers are often accused of being technology focussed at the expense of customer focus. While this is probably true, it is much easier to incentivize an engineer to listen to customer needs than it is to teach a marketer or salesperson engineering expertise. Furthermore, technical knowledge is often required to anticipate future customer needs.
The typical engineer is also thought to lack negotiation, motivation, risk-taking and deception skills. However, such skills cannot benefit an engineering organization unless they are supported by technical understanding.
The selection of nontechnical engineering managers is often rationalized with the assertion that management in general is not a technical function. This is largely inaccurate, and to the extent that it is true, it is probably indicative of fundamental organizational problems that demand corrective action.
For example, marshaling resources is a zero-sum activity. If engineering management spends a great deal of time marshaling resources, then the organization needs to re-evaluate its policies for managing resources .
As another example, if morale is suffering, then having engineers report to managers who don't understand the issues surrounding their duties is probably a contributing factor. Cheer-leading is at best a short-term solution.
| Social problems in an engineering organization very often have technical problems as their root cause. |
Engineering managers with a strong technical background are needed to identify such technical root causes, and to nurture the required technical solutions. Nontechnical managers will most likely attempt to "smooth over" such problems instead of resolving them. In the long term, this tends to exacerbate the problem, which is likely to be misdiagnosed by nontechnical managers as a need for even more nontechnical management.
Some organizations attempt to compensate for the technical inabilities of engineering managers by staffing them with technical advisors. I am not aware of a single instance in which this has been effective.
Part of the problem is that people are not good at assessing any level of ability significantly beyond their own. In particular, nontechnical managers tend to mistake self-assuredness for sound technical judgement, when in fact competent engineers regularly question their own conclusions. Sycophantism is also a problem.
| Comprehension cannot be delegated. |
Some organizations have "technical advisory panels" consisting entirely of other engineering managers. This is actually just a misnomer for "direct reports," and therefore does not constitute a solution, regardless of the technical competence of the reports.
On the other hand, if the panel does not have other responsibilities, then it tends to be isolated both from accountability and from the operations of the organization. The ability of such a panel to reach sound technical conclusions is highly questionable.
Ultimately, the fish rots from the head down, meaning that corporate management must be responsible for recruiting managers with technical ability to lead engineering efforts. Therefore, corporate management must have the ability to recognize technical ability, and the willingness to compensate good engineering managers adequately. (If money is a barrier, consider the cost of having your entire engineering department collapse into failure.)
It would be presumptuous to recommend that all corporate managers must also be engineers, because aside from hiring engineering managers, corporate management is essentially a nontechnical function. However, this is one way to solve the problem, and it has been conjectured that corporate power will inevitably shift to the technologically capable.
Other, less reliable, ways to gauge a manager's technical ability include evaluating the quality and capability of products developed under his control, or retaining an independent hiring consultant with a proven track record in this area.
Anders Johnson, last modified $Date: 2002/02/05 $