[prmph]

> a manager who worked as a developer for 3 years some 10-15 years ago is not in a better position to estimate the work than an actual developer with the same 10-15 years of experience. But they think they are.

Why do you assume this is the case here?

> I doubt it. What I've seen is corner cutting get called efficiency only for the system to devolve over time.

Again, "doubt" is not evidence to contrary. If you believe I'm making things up, then there is no longer any basis for a discussion.

I think you're arguing in bad faith. I therefore will not respond to your threads any longer. Have a good day.

[ido]

I don’t think they’re arguing in bad faith, only that their experience is different than yours. As with many things the answer is “it depends” and “a good manager is a good manager” and it’s hard to reduce to simple rules like “they’re good/bad if they worked as a developer before”. I had great managers who were very experienced developers (20+ years direct experience developing and still actively programming) and others that relied on a very experienced tech lead or senior developer that they could trust with technical decisions.

[P5fRxh5kUvp2th]

> I had great managers who were very experienced developers (20+ years direct experience developing and still actively programming) and others that relied on a very experienced tech lead or senior developer that they could trust with technical decisions.

And in fact, the latter half of that sentence is what I meant.

I'm currently a software architect and each of the teams I work with has a very senior developer (all of them over 20 years experience). I generally communicate things that are up and coming and leave them alone. 1 of them is kind of terrible at communication so I'll sometimes have to bridge that gap, but otherwise they do just fine on their own.

The other poster claims he won't "allow them to work in a silo". A senior developer doesn't _WANT_ to work in a silo.

A good manager trusts their team and enables them by removing problems. A good manager plays the politics on behalf of their team so they can get work done. Their position has little to do with the software itself because software developers are the boots on the ground, the doers.