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From: reggie@dinsdale.nm.paradyne.com (George W. Leach)
Newsgroups: comp.software-eng
Subject: Re: Information Systems is an Engineering Discipline: Management
Message-ID: <6570@pdn.paradyne.com>
Date: 21 Sep 89 16:38:34 GMT
References: <6429@hubcap.clemson.edu> <10835@riks.csl.sony.co.jp> <89262.134141UH2@PSUVM.BITNET> <1307@cs.rit.edu>
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Reply-To: reggie@dinsdale.paradyne.com (George W. Leach)
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In article <1307@cs.rit.edu> mjl@ritcv.uucp (Michael Lutz) writes:

   [Lots of descriptions of situations deleted....]

>In summary, technical management is no panacea, and non-technical
>management is not necessarily a recipe for disaster.  What's needed is
>a good, trusting relationship between the manager and the technical
>team, with a shared commitment to solid engineering.  I think it is the
>lack of appreciation of these issues that is the root cause of most
>engineer's disdain for MBA's


       I think it is a lack of qualifications on the part of a manager
that are to blame.  There are people who get promoted into management
who don't want to be there, then there are those who do want to be there.
Among the later group there are those who have the necessary skills and
those who don't.  I have never seen promotions based upon a person 
attaining the necessary skills.  Usually a promotion is based upon performance
(or perceived permance) of non-management activities.  Attainment of the
necessary management skills is normally done on the job.  Rarely is there
any formal training program put into place by the company for the new
manager.  An MBA may help, but it still doesn't address many of the skills
that a manager will need.


       I agree that the technical versus non-technical manager is not a
black and white issue.  Management is a skill just as engineering is a skill.
However, they are different.  A person with adequate skills for managing can
come from any field.  However, you *MUST* know the business that you are
managing.  There are varying levels of this knowledge.  Certainly coming from
a non-technical background a person can acquire a certain high level of
knowledge that will help with some of the business decisions.  But the lack
of at least a comparable background with the technologist that the manager
will manage will cause moral problems.  There is a people side of the
management coin that must be considered here.  An MBA program teaches generic
techniques for managing a business.  I don't even know if the MBA programs
address the people skills aspect of managing?  It seems much like medicine,
where doctors are not taught bedside manners :-)


George W. Leach					AT&T Paradyne 
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