Continuously degrading quality - insecure manager kills it all

Software programs tend (still) to be created by people - so it's quite likely that different people would create software of different quality. There is a whole bunch of people who are involved during project creation - we have product managers, project managers, project sponsors, architects, team leads, software developers, graphic designers, docs people, qa people etc. Let's divide them into two groups: managers (people responsible for overall outcome) and developers (people who develop parts of actual product). Trying to refocus from how big this oversimplification is let's try to figure what are the desired characteristics for the manager. Or maybe let's try an easier path and leave the desired stuff for later - what actually should be avoided at all costs when you are looking for a good manager to take on your project.

Based on my experience if there is a single thing I could say to a software manager sitting next to my death bed (I don't think I'll get that lucky...) - that would be: 'do no harm'.

Why is that? Because managers are the people who do most harm during software project creation. They are usually responsible for project failures. Am I saying managers are idiots? Not at all. Managers are usually the most experienced and wise people in the project. But...

Managers have extremely hard life: they are not much smarter (if at all) than the rest of the team in which they are supposed to be power figures. Remember that we are talking about ecosystem in which the main survival skill is mathematics. It's not easy to compete with pale-face, skinny-bodied mathema-males. But the manager has to have respect in this world to lead the project to desired outcome.

Additionally managers do not have measure work units which they could present to their masters if required. There is no I did 20 pounds of managing today which is well above my last year average. They are supposed to define a course and if the boat deviates from it put corrections in place.

So project management seems like easy money. Start the thing up, anticipate problems and help team prevent them or overcome them. Make sure communication within the team doesn't go off limits and protect team from the external world.

The rest of the time sit in the office and do not distract others.

This is where it gets weak when experienced by insecure manager:
if I'm not doing anything apparently there is something wrong and my masters would not be happy with me. I need to help my team. I will get involved in some technical meetings, I will argue with technicians on technical stuff, to defend my position in the team as a power figure I will be winning arguments using 'because I say so' approach. Seeing morale plunging I will design some sophisticated work review procedures and add some procedures to uniform the team. I will talk to developers with sad voice about their performance to make them improve. At the end I might not be happy and they will probably seem miserable but whatever it takes to deliver the project. Maybe late and maybe not really tested, but we for sure all worked hard every minute of our time...

So if you are a manager please remember 'do no harm' - especially if you are insecure. If you don't calculate both benefits and costs of introducing new practice, don't introduce it. If you are not sure of the outcome of the new experiment don't start it.

And if you are insecure fight your insecurity with all power you have for Christ sake - you are a manager now, you are supposed to lead people.