New Tech Lead - what do I need to know?

[AstonJ]

Ooo congrats @ohm! What kind of projects will you be working on?

I’m not sure if it’s what you’re looking for, but @jrothman has written some books that you might find interesting:

From Chaos to Successful Distributed Agile Teams (PragProg)

You’ve worked on agile teams before, but how do you use these same practices with a distributed team? You don’t! Taking off-the-shelf practices designed for collocated environments will only frustrate your teams. Or worse, you may even cause harm by forcing people to work unnatural hours because they are in a different timezone. Because your team works in a different environment, they need to think about a different way to work. [d-rkteams] Johanna Rothman @jrothman, Mark Kilby @markkilby T…

Practical Ways to Lead & Serve (Manage) Others (PragProg)

Become a great manager by leading and serving others. [d-jrothers-1000] Johanna Rothman @jrothman This work was written and produced entirely by the author. We are proud to be distributing it. Great managers lead and serve others by creating an environment where people can do their best work. Create trust, loyalty, and engagement as a modern manager. Learn to lead and serve others with ease. You can excel at managing people when you lead and serve them. You might have only seen managers …

Practical Ways to Lead an Innovative Organization (PragProg)

Want to create a culture of innovation? Work as management teams and encourage learning and experimentation. [d-jrorgan-1000] Johanna Rothman @jrothman This work was written and produced entirely by the author. We are proud to be distributing it. Want to create a culture of innovation? Work as management teams and encourage learning and experimentation. Would you like your organization to innovate more? Start with your management practices. You might never have seen innovation in managem…

The latter two are not specific to programming/tech leads but might be worth a look all the same

@rustkas

I think the book “Herding Cats: A Primer for Programmers Who Lead Programmers” is one of the first that you need to read and repeatedly refer to in your daily work.

I clicked through and thought oh great it’s got 4 stars… then scrolled down to the first review

@ohm

Yeah, I gathered that tech lead doesn’t always mean the same for each company. Here it’s going to be a technical responsibility only at first and then gradually slide into being team lead as well, combining those two roles and responsibilities.

I was going to say that I agree with @Hallski too, so thanks for clarifying! It looks like you’ll be overseeing the tech side of things then, such as deciding what languages, frameworks, methodologies to use etc? In which case you probably have most of this covered anyway (due to your experience and interest in the field) but an area where you might need to brush up on is planning and communicating, perhaps specifically outlining things for the benefit of others (such as the roadmaps you mentioned). Again I’m not sure whether they’re the perfect fit, but a couple of other books from Johanna might be worth a look!

Manage It! (PragProg)

Your project can’t fail. That’s a lot of pressure on you, and yet you don’t want to buy into any one specific process, methodology, or lifecycle. [jrpm] Johanna Rothman @jrothman Your project can’t fail. That’s a lot of pressure on you, and yet you don’t want to buy into any one specific process, methodology, or lifecycle. Your project is different. It doesn’t fit into those neat descriptions. Manage It! will show you how to beg, borrow, and steal from the best methodologies to fit your …

Predicting the Unpredictable (PragProg)

If you have trouble estimating cost or schedule for your projects, you are not alone. The question is this: who wants the estimate and why? [d-jrpredict] Johanna Rothman @jrothman This work was written and produced entirely by the author. We are proud to be distributing it. If you have trouble estimating cost or schedule for your projects, you are not alone. The question is this: who wants the estimate and why? The definition of estimate is “guess.” But too often, the people who want est…

The funny thing is when I saw your thread and that you were looking for books on the topic I wondered whether there would be many to choose from - seems like there’s a lot! If you read any please let us know how you get on! :+