“Lichty and Mantle have assembled a guide that will help you hire, motivate, and mentor a software development team that functions at the highest level. Their rules of thumb and coaching advice form a great blueprint for new and experienced software engineering managers alike.”
—Tom Conrad, CTO, Pandora

“Reading this book’s nuggets felt like the sort of guidance that I would get from a trusted mentor. A mentor who I not only trusted, but one who trusted me to take the wisdom, understand its limits, and apply it correctly.”
—Mike Fauzy, CTO, FauzyLogic

Drawing on over 80 years of combined industry experience, the authors share Rules of Thumb, Nuggets of Wisdom, checklists, and other Tools for successfully leading programmers and teams, whether they’re co-located or dispersed worldwide. This edition adds extensive new Agile coverage, new approaches to recruitment and onboarding, expanded coverage of handling problem employees, and much more. Whether you’re new to software management or you’ve done it for years, you’ll find indispensable advice for handling your challenges and delivering outstanding software.

• Find, recruit, and hire the right programmers, when you need them
• Manage programmers as the individuals they are
• Motivate software people and teams to accomplish truly great feats
• Create a successful development subculture that can thrive even in a toxic company culture
• Master the arts of managing down and managing up
• Embrace your role as a manager who empowers self-directed agile teams to thrive and succeed