With the help of the project managers, the development manager intertwines the activities of multiple projects to improve the efficiency of the team. Worked on complex tasks, solved complex problems and ensured project schedules and performance requirements were met.Managed the activities of the department in terms of costs, and tasks. Senior software engineers tend to earn a lower pay than software development managers by about $20,253 per year. Managers applications development tend to reach lower levels of education than software development managers. In fact, managers applications development are 6.4% less likely to graduate with a Master’s Degree and 0.8% less likely to have a Doctoral Degree.

Scheduling Tools – The development manager is adept at scheduling multiple conflicting priorities and as a result is skilled in the use of a resource scheduling tool. Whether a simple Excel spreadsheet or a deployment of Microsoft Office Project Server 2003, the development manager knows how to ensure that resource management is well taken care of. When software developers work together with designers, innovation flourishes, as they are natural problem solvers using different approaches. For example, design and development have to think of ways to make a site functional as well as accessible. In addition to that, one of the goals of DevOps is to keep a constant flow of new features, fixes, and frequent updates.

• Quality assurance leaders and software testers are not the same thing, especially regarding everyday responsibilities and requirements.
• A project manager is usually in charge of a team, reviews their work daily, and focuses on details and achieving project goals.
• Mouse over a state to see the number of active software development manager jobs in each state.
• Many programmers argue that they don’t care about “that sort of thing” and can actually manage without a graphical user interface , but that’s not the case for most users.
• Every step of the process should be reviewed, documented, and consolidated following a task schedule.
• Filter by location to see a Software Development Manager salaries in your area.

It breaks trust little by little and sends the message that the engineer is not trustworthy or capable enough. Even when an employee is struggling to deliver as expected, micromanagement is rarely a healthy way of addressing the problem. There is nothing more effective for losing a whole team’s trust in their manager than having hidden agendas or acting with entitlement. When a manager doesn’t trust their engineers, actions speak louder than words, and the team will notice. Strong knowledge of the principles, methods and tools for analyzing and developing software test and evaluation procedures.

Understand the total compensation opportunity for a Software Development Manager, base salary plus other pay elements

This includes coverage of software management systems and project management software – all aimed at helping to shorten the software development lifecycle . Software Development Managers are the one who responsible in planning, directing, coordinating, and managing the processes of writing and developing the software programs. The role of software development managers is manifold as it comprises software development processes as well as business and managing aspects. A software development manager is the head of a team tasked with the development and continued maintenance of software solutions. Software development managers typically have several years of experience as software developers, though their role is more focused on team leadership, project management, and organization than actual coding. The table below is a general overview on the education, skills, and certifications that could help you pursue a career as a software development manager.

Let’s have a closer look at what the role of software development manager entails. Next up, we have the principal software engineer profession to look over. This career brings along a lower average salary when compared to a software development manager annual salary. In fact, principal software engineers salary difference is $517 lower than the salary of software development managers per year.

Top Skills For a Software Development Manager

While the project management role is dutifully executing the current process, the development manager is examining, evaluating, and assessing the impact of potential changes in the market. The development manager is constantly evaluating ways to improve the skill set of the group. That can be through the use of a new tool or technique, or additional training on fundamental skills that the group already knows but doesn’t execute consistently.

For that reason, we discovered some other jobs that you may find appealing. Some jobs you might find interesting include a manager applications development, principal software engineer, contract software engineer, and senior software engineer. To gain the position as a cloud team, many companies will also look at the experience of working in the field as well as the loyalty to the company. Many software development managers are usually promoted from being software developers in the same company. With this kind of loyalty, the company is assured of the software development managers’ capabilities as they are familiar with the processes and working styles of the company’s software development unit.

Someone Needs to Shield the Team

They have to ensure that all development tasks meet the quality standards and criteria the company requires, which is achieved by issue tracking, testing, testing, and more testing. Product managers are expected to provide a vision for their product and carry it over to the entire organization. While in this role, they have to develop a strategy and assess its feasibility while working together with other areas.

They are in charge of determining the needs of the organization, checking whether there are feasible solutions to challenges, and creating plans for the development of a software solution. They provide a sound analysis of data collected during the testing phase of the software and address any problems during the software development phase. Once the software has been developed, they then ensure that it works well and that it addresses the needs and expectations of the users.

Generally, they focus on how the business should use technology to achieve its goals. Hence, the manager should be strategic with deadlines that give developers enough time to accommodate unexpected issues. Moreover, the manager will negotiate with the client or management to establish reasonable timelines to complete the product. In turn, the team members should deliver within the agreed timeline. They also assess if team members require additional training and anticipate problems as they arise.

About the Company

Software developers can write code if you tell them what code to write. Dev managers step in to help the team prioritize and write the correct code. They know how to navigate software development using their years of experience. Depending on the project’s scope, the manager can also take on a more hands-on role in development. Yet, their primary role is to supervise the software development processes.

It also promotes a culture of transparency and trust within the organization, which can lead to increased productivity and job satisfaction. Regarding their aptitudes, product managers should be familiar with design thinking and have exceptional communication skills. Negotiating with so many different teams and professionals is no easy task.

Top Software Development Manager Employers

Tech leads are the first step away from the coding trenches, the first rank with its platoon to manage. In this process, they might have to learn to delegate work and stop micromanaging. Also, they will have to make independent decisions for their team and tackle challenging management and leadership situations.

Often times the IT manager leverages the strengths of a project manager or a solutions architect to fill the needs of the development manager role, retaining tasks such as cross prioritization of projects. The development management role works closely with the project management role to ensure that the projects are completed. They also spend time working with the business owners on planning and preparing for new projects that will soon be consuming the group. They’re constantly making small changes in the current project to get a better product, develop a better skill set in the group, or just generally preparing the development team for the next hurdle that they must face. In this section, we will review some common misconceptions among software development management while comparing some roles. Roles like CTO and tech lead or project and product manager are often mixed up, leading to several communication and responsibility issues.

Thus, they have a better sense of what makes a good developer or a bad one. So, a great dev manager can help ensure you hire the right people on the team. Along with managing the team, dev managers have to help recruit and hire the right team members. It is hard to assess if developers are any good at what they do or not. This includes daily and weekly team meetings and regular 1-on-1 meetings.

Since salary is important to some software development managers, it’s good to note that they are figured to earn the highest salaries at Meta, Grubhub, and eBay. If you were to take a closer look at Meta, you’d find that the average software development manager salary is $212,607. Then at Grubhub, software development managers receive an average salary of $200,093, while the salary at eBay is $198,125. Most teams have a project manager that oversees the day-to-day progress of a project, but the software development manager designs and enforces the software development lifecycle within the organization. There are several organizations offering certifications relevant to the title of software development manager. In non-software development or consulting companies, the development manager role is often played by the IT management.

They manage relationships in the team

Aside from the occasional travel, software development managers usually work in their own office during the usual working hours. Volunteering to present or prepare status reports helps to encourage this kind of communication. Mainly, the product backlog contains the user stories which change with every sprint. We talked about product backlogs before with the product and project managers. Scrum is the methodology invented by Jeff Sutherland that profits the most from this kind of organization. When defining a feature set with user stories and a stereotypical formulation “As a… I need… So that…”, the team gets a sprint backlog that maximizes efficiency.

In traditional software development approaches, the scope of the project is defined at the outset and is not meant to change throughout the development process. This can be problematic, as it can lead to inflexibility and a lack of adaptability. Agile methodology, on the other hand, encourages continuous iteration and the ability to pivot in response to changing requirements or market conditions.

Here is when you see product managers dealing with the product backlog and taking the responsibilities of a product owner. But ideally, there will be two different people dedicated to each role. If you read each role separately above, you have probably realized the differences between a project manager and a product manager.

Your teams have a culture of continuous improvement and a “get things done” attitude. Partnered with executives and senior leaders to implement comprehensive leadership development program focused on fundamental management behaviors and effective change management. Software development managers work in myriad industries, including health care, construction, finance, and technology. A leader wanting to develop new talent in software development management and SDLC’s. The highest level software development executive may be a Chief Information Officer . Some companies have both, and the CTO typically reports to the CIO.

Luckily, we’ve found all of the skills you’ll need so even if you don’t have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 17.3% of software development managers listed java on their resume, but soft skills such as creativity and detail oriented are important as well. In addition, most companies usually prefer to employ software development manager with extensive experience in software design and software development. Many companies also require a good technical and analytical knowledge of various platforms and programming languages such as C, C++, Python, and JavaScript. In the process of software development, there are various project management tools used by the software development team when working with the projects.