Technical background and education for an IT manager. Necessity or advantage?

Introduction

At the start of my career in IT, I was very worried about this issue. I was so excited that in the very first team I got into, I began to study the technology stack that the team used. I started writing some simple project in PHP, then in Java, and even asked me to give me some simple tasks related to API testing through Postman and documentation in Swagger. Did I do the right thing or not? And is it worth it for everyone, headlong, to dive into the technique?

In my opinion, this topic should be disclosed, as it is relevant for both beginners and experienced professionals.

Then I propose to go through the arguments "for" and "against".

Why yes

1. If you are not interested in the technical side of things, then perhaps technology is not your field. This is one of my favorite arguments that I picked up from Cracking the PM Interview. In it, Thomas Arend (International Product Lead from Airbnb) answers one of the author's questions as part of a Q&A session. In short, your passion for IT can be reflected in your interest in how technology works. And if you not only have no particular interest in this, but also feel some kind of serious blocker, then perhaps this is not your business.

Why did I remember this particular part about the manager's technical skills, given that the book is rich in examples and other arguments in this regard? I think because I personally like and always liked tinkering with certain technologies, and there was even a period when I seriously considered switching to backend developers.

For those who want a more detailed quote from the book:

“Education in the computer field and having technical experience is also useful. You need to work with engineers and earn their trust. If they have to explain everything to you “on the fingers”, then you have no chance of success. If I'm developing a new line of cars, I don't have to be an engineer, but it will be easier for me if I can at least change a wheel in my free time and imagine what's going on under the hood, and ideally I know the names of the parts and can replace some of them myself. It is important to know what is under the hood and be interested in it. If you are not interested in the technical side of things, then perhaps technology is not your field. How would you feel about learning a little Java by buying a book, installing Eclipse, and building a simple mobile app? If this idea inspires you, great. If you think: “Is it worth it?”,

2. Because it helps to save time when making decisions on the development of an IT product / project. When it is not necessary to involve a team of engineers for each feature or project idea in order to first understand the scope of the task.

3. Communication. Perhaps the most obvious plus is communication with the team: a technically competent manager can communicate more effectively with the development team, understand their problems and suggestions, which improves coordination and cooperation.

4. Versatility - good technical literacy makes you stable in communication with different teams, specialists, and even more flexible in choosing career opportunities. If he wanted to, he went to a startup;

5. Delivery management. For many managers, speed or stable product delivery is an important metric. Understanding the technical features and owning the technical base, the manager will be able to distinguish the redundancy of the quality of the development code from the necessary implementation to launch the first version of the product. Then stones from engineers will fly at me with the words “Oh, how beautifully I wrapped the fucking CRUTCHES!”

6. Innovation Development: An IT manager with a technical background can become more involved in the process of creating new products or services by offering innovative technical solutions.

7. Credibility: Technical literacy can increase the level of trust from the development team, clients, or other stakeholders who evaluate the manager's ability to understand complex technical aspects of a project.

8. Ability to learn: If a manager understands the technical aspects, he can be more effective in teaching his team or other members of the organization. From personal experience, it happens that a technically competent manager can suggest using the right technology to solve a business / product problem and convince the team to use it, even when the team had no experience with it. As a result, this increases efficiency and improves the business metrics of the product for which the manager is responsible.

Why not

1. Because there are many examples of quite successful managers without a technical background on the market. It is worth adding that the managers are quite successful. Among my personal acquaintances there are CPO, Program Manager, Scrum Master, Agile Coach, Product Managers.
2. It is more difficult to delegate or not interfere in technical decision making. It's more of a risk than a downside. But still it is worth mentioning, I have seen such a manifestation especially among managers who were previously in development, which led to “Decrease in team efficiency: If the manager interferes too often in the technical aspects of the work, this can lead to dissatisfaction in the team and reduce its effectiveness.”?
3. Wasting focus, attention and time on making or participating in technical decisions is definitely a negative. A manager always has higher priority tasks that bring his project closer to success than technical features.
4. In general, it is important to remember that the effectiveness of an IT manager is determined not only by the presence or absence of a technical background, but also by management skills, communication, planning, and many other factors.

There can then be many similar arguments as to why technical skills may be less useful than certain skills for a manager (for example, economics, data analysis, financial accounting, and negotiation skills). It will be great if you throw more arguments against in the comments, my fantasy is over.

Here I want to sum up a mini-summary. In my opinion, the arguments “for” rather expand the possibilities and range of development of the manager, while the arguments “against” are more of a justifying position on the topic. I say this to the fact that there is no strong position or argument from one side or another, which means that this is a holivar topic. My opinion is that so far the arguments “for” outweigh the arguments “against”, but only slightly, since each of them can be shaken. But what do the numbers tell us? Let's take a look at the market.

Analytical approach

I must say right away that there will be no exact numbers here and all the data below is collected in a very artisanal way. If any of you have access to the databases of large recruiting platforms or can post a survey in one of the popular channels / chats for IT managers, you can contact me, we'll think about how to do a more accurate study. Well, everyone who is just interested to know how accurate the calculation differs from the current one, you can show interest in the comments!

Let's go:

In the Moscow market, at the moment, the distribution of vacancies for managers with the prefix Technical is approximately 2-3% of the total number of vacancies for managers. In this case, the ratio is preserved for both Product and Project managers.

An attempt to look at the foreign market reveals:

• the number of vacancies among IT managers with the prefix technical already amounts to tens of percent of the total, and in some recruiting resources and locations it reaches 50%
• the average salary of a technical project manager is 1.5 times higher than that of a project manager

What can be the conclusions here??

1. There are not many technical vacancies in our market among the general pool and this may mean that there is no high demand.
2. Technical managers in IT are more in demand in foreign markets, and if we adhere to the position that the dynamics of our market will tend to foreign ones, the demand for technical knowledge will grow.
3. Specialists with a technical background earn more (specifically project managers).

You also need to understand that the absence of a technical prefix in the job title does not always mean that a specific role will not require a technical background. I sometimes see this:

• as a mandatory requirement in the job description;
• as an additional plus to the candidate;
• interview question (and sometimes they even ask about commercial development experience).

According to my personal feelings, at every 5-6 interviews or in the description of every 6-7 vacancies, you can find similar requirements. I do not take into account all the vacancies on the market in a row, but those that sometimes fly into my inbox.

inference

After analyzing the pros and cons again and taking into account the available data, I stop at the following position:

• Does a manager need to have a technical background to do their job well? — no, except for specific vacancies and roles.
• Can you improve your competitiveness in the marketplace by understanding the basic technical concepts? - Yes.

It is very logical to increase your capabilities and competitiveness in the market. Especially in the IT market, which is constantly evolving and transforming. Moreover, there are a number of absolutely clear and constantly occurring technical concepts on each project, which are easy to understand, and at the same time significantly improve communication and your own understanding of service development.