QFM027: Engineering Leadership Reading List - July 2024

Source: Photo by Greg Rakozy on Unsplash

This month’s Engineering Leadership Reading List starts with look AI's transformative role in product management. The article "Product Management Will Be Taken Over By AI in 5 Years" predicts a future where AI automates up to 80% of product management tasks, emphasizing strategic oversight and creative decision-making as essential human-centric aspects that will remain. This theme of redefining roles continues with "Why Do Developers Lose 1 Day a Week to Inefficiencies?" which underscores the need for managers to align decisions with developers' needs to enhance productivity and job satisfaction.

We then take a look at management and team dynamics. "Break the “Not My Job” Syndrome With The RACI Matrix" provides practical tips for assigning roles and responsibilities to boost accountability and efficiency, while "The Importance/Difficulty Matrix: A Tool for Better Decision-Making" introduces a framework to facilitate task prioritization and decision-making. Additionally, "Introducing MX – Management Experience™" presents a new management philosophy, building on the ideas of developer experience (DevEx) that focusses on ethical practices and growth, emphasizing the importance of understanding and supporting team members.

Challenging traditional structures, "Solution – We Don’t Need Managers!" explores the potential of flat management approaches, using real-world examples to question the necessity of managers and highlight ways to enhance organizational efficiency.

On the engineering front, we explore several articles offering strategies for navigating technical complexities. "The plan-execute pattern" contrasts with the traditional 'just do it' approach, advocating for a structured separation of planning and execution to improve testing and debugging. "A Common Problem with ADR Implementations" looks at the importance of proper scoping in architectural decisions, highlighting how clear definitions can prevent conflicts and improve outcomes.

Creativity and innovation also play a role in this month's links. "Normalizing Creativity" encourages professionals to embrace creativity beyond the arts. Finally, the two-part series "Building Engineering Progression - Part I: Groundwork" and "Building Engineering Progression - Part II" provides a roadmap for creating career development frameworks that foster innovation within engineering teams, covering essential skills, expectations, and growth paths.

As always, the Quantum Fax Machine Propellor Hat Key will guide your browsing. Enjoy!

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Originally published on quantumfaxmachine.com. Also available on Medium.