What type of tech leads do we want for 2025?
It is common, at this time of year, for us to worry about what will happen in the next year in the job market of our profession. We are also experiencing a significant acceleration in digital transformation due to the restrictions imposed by the recent pandemic. And so, this massive increase in the workforce in our field requires strong technical leadership. I am confident that the challenge remains great and will continue to be great next year.
It’s becoming increasingly clear that organizing operations into structures and processes is one thing, but actually delivering value and working software is another. Therefore, to have a high-performing team, more than process management, we need strong technical leadership. Here, I list the attributes I consider essential for technical leaders to make a difference moving forward.
Lead by Example
I find it regrettable, but it is still necessary to emphasize that a leader is not a boss. In many companies, the role of technical leadership is placed in a position with traditional responsibilities from hierarchical organizations. This has led to a number of leaders who don’t participate in the implementation of the decisions they make. At least at the team level, by 2025, we won’t need this type of technical leadership.
Instead of a managerial position, a leadership role should be involved in the entire process and live with the consequences of its decisions. Therefore, this is not an easy role and it’s not isolated in a position or within an office. It’s like a sports team: the captain leads from within and plays alongside the team. Wins together, loses together.
Understand the Current Process
Regardless of what happens, one thing remains unchanged: software is still about people. The need for us to work in teams won’t change. We still need to cooperate.
Even if we use similar methods, each organization will have its own way of operating. It’s the technical leader’s responsibility to be aligned with management and serve as a lever to increase team adherence to processes.
Moreover, and perhaps even more importantly, it’s essential to work daily to reinforce the team’s policies and objectives. This might be the most challenging part of all. Because it requires a lot of skill and persistence to influence a real behavioral change in people. Also, doing this without creating friction is an art.
Manage Risk
In a software development operation, we constantly deal with various risks, such as:
- Losing time-to-market
- Having downtime due to poor performance
- User churn
- Loss of sales or revenue generated by the software
Some aspects of these risks will only be fully observed and understood within the technical scope. So, by now, I think you’ve already understood who is responsible for this. Therefore, we can’t expect a business area or a Product Owner to foresee all these risks without the support of technical leadership.
The person in this role needs to align these concerns with the product roadmap. Does the deadline and scope seem unattainable due to high technical complexity? Is it possible to meet the MVP launch goal with the current infrastructure? Are we sure about the regression of features as new code is deployed to production?
Only technical leadership can answer these types of questions with clarity and should act to influence the process management to accommodate the necessary actions.
Notice that I haven’t discussed technical topics, which obviously are very relevant and also bring novelties for 2025.
But that’s another matter. The most important thing, in my humble opinion and experience, is the mastery of soft skills while advancing in hard skills. This is because people in the market already know how to perform the technical part; what needs to evolve urgently is cooperation.
