Software Development Manager: A Comprehensive Guide for Every Job Applicant

A quick Google search reveals that a career as a software development manager is a promising one. However, whether you’re just starting your career or are a seasoned manager in the world of Information Technology, you’ll agree that the job is not simple.

While a software developer is one of the most popular jobs today, there are several things you should consider. You need to always stay on your feet to ensure the task at hand remains within the agreed-upon budget for software development, time, and scope. The best starting point as an aspiring manager is to know the skills, responsibilities and expected salary.

In this extensive guide, let’s help you kick-start or strengthen your career as a software development manager.

What is a Software Development Manager?

A software development manager manages a team of developers in designing software, web service and applications.

They’re also responsible for hiring and training the staff, overseeing budgets, and reporting the project’s progress to senior managers.

As a software manager, you’ll usually liaise with other department’s managers to determine the organizational software needs and how to meet them.

What Makes a Great Software Development Manager?

You’ll need at least a Bachelor’s degree in computer engineering, software engineering, or a related technical field. You can advance to a Master of Science degree or MBA to boost your chance of earning a space as a software development manager in a leading company.

Additionally, be sure you have a good knowledge and solid management experience in:

You want to be a guru in executing your job as a software development manager, right? Like in other jobs, you’ll need to take time to acquire excellent technical and transferable skills.

Technical skills

Your years in college plus some hands-on experience gives you vital hard skills. Without a solid education qualification and job experience, you’ll find it impossible working as a software development manager.

To give you more ideas, here are some of the skills software development managers should have:

Javascript
Python
Ruby
Java
C#
C
C++
PHP
Swift
Go

Amazon Web Service
Microsoft Azure
Apple IOS
Google Android
Oracle Database
GNU
LiveCOde
Java Platform e.t.c

Waterfall
Feature-driven Development
Agile
Scrum
Extreme Programming
Lean
DevOps Deployment Methodology
Rapid Application Development
Dynamic Systems Development Model Methodology
Spiral Model
Joint Application Methodology
Rational Unified Process Methodology
Prototype Methodology

We build custom software with modern solutions in mind for any business and sizes!

Transferable

Software development involves a lot of interactions with other stakeholders. Your work as a manager is more than just staying glued at your desk as you manage the product development. You’ll need to interact with every stakeholder for the project’s success.

So these management skills will add more weight to your resume:

What is the work of a Software Development Manager?

As a software development manager, your job will revolve mainly around overseeing projects, resources, relevant relationships, and teams to ensure everything sails through.

Some of your duties will include:

#1: Develop rock-solid strategies

The best product development strategy is one that takes into account the software requirements. It should communicate a clear sense of direction to your team. Therefore, it’s your role as a manager to liaise with the marketing or department manager to identify new programs’ requirements.

Does your organization’s departments require software for internal use? Working with the departments’ manager, you’ll identify these section’s needs to understand the software’s functional requirements.

Are you looking to surprise your customers with a new application or modify an existing one? You’ll determine the market requirements and conduct a performance review of the current programs.

#2: Knit Together Team Members

You’ll also be responsible for identifying the requisite skills related to a particular project. You’ll then hire or recruit people to form a team of developers.

Be ready to manage or outsource training programs to ensure all your members can handle the project at hand.

Lastly, you’ll review your team members’ performance against strategic goals. Is a software developer or engineer lagging in their areas of duty? Your role here will be to offer support in form of training or mentoring.

#3: Allocate Team Resources

As a manager, it’s your task to know what the engineers and developers in your team need. Thanks to technology, your engineers can accomplish their responsibilities from any location within the agreed-upon number of days.

The most important resource for a software engineer includes communication tools, computing systems, design tools, and development tools.

As your project progresses, each stage may require a different number and types of resources. Always ensure the project doesn’t come to a standstill due to lack of any tool.

You may guide your developers to use cloud computing to optimize their computing tools. You may also rent extra computing space instead of purchasing costly infrastructure.

#4: Schedule Projects

You don’t want any part or the whole of your team to lag in projects and post a negative image to your seniors and clients.

If you’re creating products for external customers, you’ll have to be aware of the release date that the marketing team planned. Then coordinate these dates with your team’s development schedules and phases.

The executive management of your prospective company will want to see if you can pilot a software development project to get the product to the market on time. So don’t fail them.

#5: Pilot the Project Forward

As your software product cruise through it’s lifecycle, your role will be to monitor its progress against pre-set intermediate and end goals.

As a manager, you’ll be meeting your Information Technology team regularly to review the journey and identify challenges. Be sure to discuss quality reports to ensure the product is in line with the client company and technical objectives.

Also, you’ll be scheduling regular meetings with the marketing team, department managers, clients, and other relevant people. They’ll want you to show them the current status of the software product, in terms of design, development, testing, and other aspects. Additionally, they don’t want to miss an opportunity to get and air out their feedbacks.

We build custom software with modern solutions in mind for any business and sizes!

How much do Software Developer Managers Make?

Almost every IT company at any level is looking for a good software development manager with robust experience.

Therefore, an attractive average salary is something you should be looking forward to since nobody wants to let go of a reliable development manager that understands their job.

A software development manager working in a USA company can pocket an average salary of USD $147,800 per annum or USD $71 per hour. The bottom 10% makes under USD $116,000, while the top 10% over USD $186,000.

Wrapping Up

If you’re looking to land jobs as a software development manager, be sure to enrich your resume with several years of experience, soft skills and leadership abilities on top of your technical prowess.

That way, a prospective IT company or customer will trust you to steer teams of engineers and developers in the right direction. In return, your earnings will take an upward growth.

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