A comprehensive collection of frameworks, templates, and practices for effective Software Development Management.
This repository contains practical tools and frameworks I've developed and refined throughout my career. It represents a living, evolving set of practices that focus on enabling teams, aligning with business strategy, and driving meaningful impact.
As a Software Development Manager, my role centers on being a team enabler, strategic navigator, and growth mentor. I bring guidance and experience to every conversation, helping teams translate business goals into clear technical direction, grow individually through coaching and feedback, and operate in an environment where collaboration, learning, and celebrating wins are part of the culture.
It's not just about delivering software—it's about building up people while building great products.
"One of the most meaningful aspects in life is being in service to other human beings."
At its core, the Software Development Manager role is about service:
- Service to your team, by removing blockers, guiding growth, and celebrating wins
- Service to your peers and partners, by building alignment and collaboration across product, design, and stakeholders
- Service to the organization, by ensuring engineering effort delivers meaningful impact
Read this monthly, remind yourself how to be the BEST Being the Best Software Engineering Manager in the World - A comprehensive guide covering team leadership, managing up, cross-functional partnerships, and mastering the craft of management.
Progress Over Process: Before diving into the detailed frameworks, read Progress Over Process Guide - Learn how to use these tools to accelerate results rather than create bureaucracy.
Bias for Action: Speed matters in business. Many decisions and actions are reversible and do not need extensive study. We value calculated risk taking. Use these frameworks to make decisions quickly and iterate based on results.
Frugality: Accomplish more with less. Constraints breed resourcefulness, self-sufficiency, and invention. There are no extra points for growing headcount, budget size, or fixed expense. Focus on maximizing value and impact with the resources you have.
Essential frameworks for managing up, advocating for your team, and building effective relationships with supervisors and stakeholders.
- What I Need From My Supervisor - Clear expectations and support requirements for effective SDM operation
- Advocating for Your Team - Representing team needs and achievements across functions
Proven practices and templates for building effective team dynamics and continuous improvement.
- Blocker Removal Playbook - Identifying and eliminating obstacles that prevent progress
- Sprint Retrospectives - Running effective retrospectives for continuous improvement
- 1-on-1 Template - Ready-to-use template for tracking 1:1s
- Facilitating Collaboration - Creating opportunities for cross-functional teamwork
Frameworks for translating business vision into technical direction and ensuring engineering work delivers value.
- Translating Company Vision - Bridge the gap between abstract company strategy and concrete engineering work
- Clarifying Questions - Actionable frameworks for aligning daily engineering with long-term business goals
- Creating and Determining Value - Framework for evaluating, creating, and communicating value across customer, business, and engineering dimensions
- Translating Outcomes Into Initiatives - Step-by-step guide for turning business or customer outcomes into actionable technical initiatives
- Roadmap Preparation Playbook - Comprehensive process for preparing engineering inputs to product roadmaps
- Team Growth Initiatives Template - Map individual development goals to technical projects
- Stakeholder Communication Strategy - Tailored communication approaches for different stakeholder types
- Resource Planning Framework - Budget, headcount, and capacity planning
- Risk Management Playbook - Risk assessment and mitigation strategies
- Success Metrics Framework - Measurement and tracking approaches
- Cross-Team Coordination Guide - Managing dependencies and collaboration
- Timeline Planning Framework - Phasing and milestone planning
- Execution Tracking System - Post-roadmap monitoring and adaptation
Frameworks and checklists for designing scalable, reliable systems and conducting effective design reviews.
- System Design Playbook - Comprehensive framework for system design discussions and technical interviews
- Quick Scalable Feature Checklist - Go/No-Go checklist for feature reviews and merges
Templates and frameworks for effective communication across all stakeholders.
- Engineering Initiative Proposal - Template for proposing new technical initiatives with business justification
- Technical Risk Brief - Framework for communicating technical risks to stakeholders
- Engineering Health Report - Template for reporting team velocity, quality, and technical health metrics
- Tradeoff Decision Record - Documenting technical tradeoffs and their rationale
- Incident Postmortem - Structured template for conducting and documenting incident postmortems
- Architecture Decision Record - Template for documenting significant architectural decisions
- Quarterly Planning Alignment - Framework for aligning engineering work with quarterly business goals
- Experiment Spike Report - Template for documenting technical experiments and proof-of-concepts
- Tech Debt Business Case - Framework for making the business case for technical debt reduction
- Stakeholder Escalation Runbook - Guide for escalating issues and communicating with stakeholders
Tools for measuring, interpreting, and communicating engineering health and team performance.
- Engineering Health Report - How to measure, interpret, and communicate engineering velocity, quality, and risk in business terms
Great software development management is about creating an environment where talented people can do their best work while building products that matter. It's the intersection of technical excellence, people development, and business impact.
This playbook is a living document that evolves with experience and feedback. Each framework has been tested in real-world scenarios and refined based on what actually works in practice.
This project is licensed under the Apache License - see the LICENSE file for details.