First draft of article on remote engineering management.

content/remote-managing-engineers.md

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+title = "Remote Managing Software Engineers"
+date = 2020-05-13
+draft = true
+[taxonomies]
+tags = [
+    "teams",
+    "management",
+    "remote"
+]
++++
+
+# If engineering management is hard try doing it remotely
+
+I'm one of those people who enjoys working from home. I'm just introverted
+enough and have enough focus that working from home is kind of my ideal state.
+I'm also a manager now though and that adds a whole dimension to working from
+home compared to being an engineer. It's no longer about your effectiveness
+when working from home. Now it's also about how effective your team is in a
+remote situation.
+
+In this CoVID19 world we find ourselves in, many software shops have found
+themselves suddenly transitioned into a full remote working environment. This
+poses new challenges. I've been thinking about this lately and wanted to note
+my thoughts on the matter.
+
+# Good remote management is just good management
+
+Many of the things that make for good remote management of software engineers
+are also just good management practices. You need to empower your engineers to
+make decisions autonomously. You need to be able to trust your engineers and
+you need them to be able to trust you. You need regular communication with the
+engineers in order to facilitate all of the above.
+
+# Autonomous decision making
+
+Remote management requires giving your team a clear mental framework for
+decision making. In my [previous article](@/engineering-managment-is-hard.md)
+article I mention how important narrative and identity are in engineering
+management. It's critical when managing remotely. You will be less present to
+your team physically. They can't just stop by your desk to ask a question. You
+won't overhear conversations at desks when you walk by and many of the tools
+you used to promote a team identity and culture are harder when you are remote.
+
+## Written communication
+
+Written communication can go a long way to giving your team a reference for
+decision making. Keep a blog or send out weekly and monthly memos with your
+perspective on the state of the team. If there are policies or processes that
+are required for the team to follow, make sure they are clearly documented and
+easy to find. When teams meets in a video conference make sure that someone is
+keeping notes that can be recorded after the meeting. It helps keep those who
+had audio issues or weren't able to make it keep in sync on the decisions.
+
+Written communication helps keep the mental framework the team uses for
+decision making stable. If there are disagreements among team members then
+documented policies and processes give them a way to resolve the disagreement
+quickly by referring to that documentation.
+
+## Consistenct Communication
+
+Being remote magnifies inconsistencies in your communication. It's important to
+be consistent in how you apply the principles that define your teams identity.
+If you change how you make decisions every week then it's difficult for your
+team to learn how to make decisions on their own. They'll continually be
+referring decisions to you and you'll find yourself micromanaging.
+Micromanaging a team is nearly impossible to do when working remotely.
+
+Give your engineers a way to reliably make decisions that won't surprise you or
+other team members. If they have a consistently communicated framework for
+decision making then they will be able to make decision without fear and the
+need for you to be involved will be reduced.
+
+## Be virtually present
+
+Be available to your team through the various mechanisms for communication your
+team has. Management tends to be more interrupt driven than software
+development is. Have virtual office hours. Hold training sessions. Whatever you
+do don't miss your one on ones with people you manage. It will take time for
+them to build that mental framework for autonomous decision making and there
+are no shortcuts. Make sure your team can access you when they need to.
+
+# Building trust
+
+It is much harder to build trust without a physical presence. A lot of trust
+gets build via body language. You will have to work harder to build that trust
+when remote. The above points about regular consistent communication are
+critical to your ability to build trust. You also need to demonstrate follow
+through in what commit to. Don't promise something you can't deliver and be
+frank about it when you mess up.
+
+When the team learns they can trust your word they will get more comfortable.
+This forms a feedback loop into their autonomous decision making. When they
+feel like they can trust the foundation they'll walk more confidently and make
+better more consistent decisions. That in turn will cause you to trust them
+more as well. Clear consitent communication leads to consistent decision making
+which leads to more trust in both directions.