Part of the reason that I stress your role in this estimation and planning process is that it’s distracting and stressful for engineers to have a manager who’s constantly asking them for random project estimates. As the manager, you’re responsible for handling uncertainty and limiting how much of that uncertainty you expose to your team. Don’t be a telephone between the engineers and the rest of the company, parroting messages back and forth and distracting people who are busy with the important tasks you’ve already committed to do. But you’re not a black hole, either. Try to get a teamwide
...more
