[ddmichael]

Apparently this is a junior person's blog promotion and hence the controversial (or plain wrong for me) title which has raised several discussions here.

Since we are talking about it though, let's apply the 5 whys: 1. Why do companies need managers? Because they need they're employees to be managed 2. Why do companies need their employees to be managed? Because they are not certain that they will follow the company's short/long-term strategy and vision 3. Why are they not certain? Because they're having trust issues 4. Why are they having trust issues? Because they are not investing in proper hiring 5. Why are they not investing in proper hiring? Because it's expensive and requires tremendous multidisciplinary skills, time and effort

We are dealing with one night stands masked as serious dates ladies and gentlemen. Managers are just pawns which patch the original issue. Solving hiring would make them redundant.

[djohnston]

That’s a pretty remarkable leap you’ve made from 2-3. Coordinating activities across large organisations is hard.

[ddmichael]

I see what you mean and you're not wrong. However given that you hire good senior engineers and that you trust them, most companies can resolve these issues. Coordinating activities is a project manager's thing which should have to do with gantt diagrams and not with micro-managing engineers. Very few companies are having complex software similar to OS, therefore being in need of the management that you're referring to. It's astonishing how managers responsible for building a button are reading the mythical man month and think they are the same.

[nickpeterson]

One issue is that people can agree on a general vision but differ completely on what problems exist, how they could be resolved, and what series of decisions support each other. It becomes overwhelming for people to think about.

Focus on writing down your thoughts and supporting them. Build a case for something and then make decisions and execute. If you can put together a cogent argument, even people who disagree can often stomach working hard on it as long as you acknowledge their criticism and occasionally reevaluate past decisions.

[Macha]

Alternatively, when an organisation reaches a certain size, there becomes enough high level coordination needs for it to be a full time job, and also some HR-type functions work better when distributed to the edges rather than the central org.