Managing Short and Long-Term Projects Software Teams Love

Software projects, really all projects, are not created equal. There’ll be some you love. There’ll be some you really, really don’t love, at all – for any of a number of reasons. And that’s okay, except that as a manager, your mindset can have a massive influence on both your own and your team’s performance.

The difference can be weighed by a routine where everyone’s just going through the motions to get the job done. And that may be sufficient. But it begs the question as to how different things could be if everyone was inspired to do their best?

As an engineering manager, you probably aren’t writing code. You may not even be involved in a lot of technical work so much as consulting with developers and specialists to decide on the best course of action. It’s cool if you are, suffice that the management side of your job is more about enabling everyone to do their best work.

You’re not on the front lines per se. You can be, but being in a support role, you have the ability to call in the big guns to reshape the landscape. If need be, you can:

1. Encourage your team to document what they (you, too) learn on the project – skills, coding techniques, tools, etc. Encourage everyone to keep a weekly log.
2. While the technology is fresh in everyone’s minds, encourage your team to look at getting relevant certifications, LinkedIn Skill Assessments, or similar programs with UpWork, SkillValue, and others.
3. Capture and share performance metrics as they can be referenced on your resume/CV.
4. If the project is online; suggest to everyone to add it to their portfolio (link, description, role, achievements).
5. If they perform well, welcome team members and stakeholders to use you as a reference for their next job.
6. Give competent team members recommendations on their LinkedIn profiles, feel free to ask them to consider doing the same for you.
7. As a manager, consider writing letters of recommendation for your team members.
8. On an ongoing basis, it is a great practice to share suitable opportunities with former team members whom you think would make a great fit.

Making an effort to establish a good rapport with team members increases the chances they may recommend you, but also expands your network when it comes to hiring future talent. Employee referrals are considered the best, easiest, fastest, and cheapest way to hire quality people. These tips are useful for all managers as eventually, even long-term projects will eventually be a short-term prospect for everyone.

This may seem to place undue emphasis on future work instead of your current project. The focus is still on delivering a successful software project as a prerequisite for future projects. Just, sometimes it’s the motivation of what you can achieve in the future that drives you to do your best today. It’s like why you might work a little harder this month so you can actually enjoy your vacation next month.