[tboyd47]

Sometimes there just isn't anyone on the team with both the technical knowledge and management skills. In that case I would actually rather be supervised by a non-technical person who is nevertheless a skilled manager than a smart developer who is terrible at management.

Edit: since I'm downvoted, allow me to explain- a good manager knows how to delegate and stay out of people's way, so I don't necessarily care if that person is technical or not, but a bad manager who is also a developer is going to insist on coding all the most critical parts of the application him- or herself and leave you to clean up their messes when they're stuck in meetings all day. That person is really more like an individual contributor with special privileges and I've worked with quite a few of them.

[DustinOfDenver]

So I think what you are saying:

(Good Manager + No Tech Skills) > (Bad manager + great tech skills).

I don't think that is the argument... I think it is:

(Good Manager + No Tech Skill) < (Good Manager + great tech skills)...

and on that point no one would disagree.

It is interesting how so many have tried to frame the argument the first way - perhaps they are more of a unicorn than one would hope... but it would still be better to have BOTH skills.

[tboyd47]

It is truly rare to find a person with both skills.

Usually what happens is the best coder in the bunch gets asked to manage the team but 1) doesn't know anything about management and 2) doesn't want to be a manager but likes the power and fancy title. So this person just keeps on coding but with less accountability to the other team members.

What the tech world needs is more skilled managers, not more technical managers. People overvalue the notion of calling developers' bluff because there is a basic level of trust that is missing.

[DustinOfDenver]

+1 on the missing trust... needs to be addressed.