IT Manager’s Journal: Seven Tips for Leading FOSS Programmers

“Books about management techniques rarely mention how to lead
computer programmers. The few that do sooner or later reach for a
cliché and compare the effort to herding cats–J. Hank
Rainwater, for instance, uses the phrase as his title. Partly, the
comparison reflects how much the topic is outside the corporate
mainstream. However, the comparison also reflects the conflicting
nature of the job. The typical IT department represents a separate
culture within a company, and a successful manager must both
understand that culture and act as a bridge between it and the rest
of the company, trying to explain each to the other.

“I’ve seen dozens of managers–including myself–approach this
conflict, each with varying degrees of success…”

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