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This is how I see it,
my boss, and a good friend, has all of the technical background for programming, unforunately, like others have mentioned here, it's out dated.
Or he himself never practicies the art.
Too many times we see mistakes that easily could have been avoided by using good techniques (like modular programming, local variables, etc).
I mean, this guy is a VB hacker programmer all of the way. His favorite is "on error resume next" followed closely by using a global variant data type........
So, Experience of Managers? I don't know....
This are my own opinions. You know the rest.....
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Anonymous wrote:
I mean, this guy is a VB hacker programmer all of the way. His favorite is "on error resume next" followed closely by using a global variant data type........
 Sig material!
Anonymous wrote:
This are my own opinions. You know the rest.....
If you want to be anonymous, I suggest you clear the signature box when posting. 
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If your boss has no programming experience, you may have stress or misunderstanding of your work, but that depends on the personality of your boss.
If he has a lot of programming experience, it will also work.
But the worst is a manager with a little or outdated experience, he always wants to hear from inside your work, but he never will understand that you have other problems in the OO world, and that modern RDBMS are something others than ISAM files, that graphical interface design is more subtle than masks on terminals, etc., etc.
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I cetainly agree to this .............absolutely TRUE.
My previous company boss has worked on COBOL with ISAM files. He was incapable to handle/learn/understand the modern techs & strategies in any project. B coz of that i'm forced 2 seek a new job in hi-tech company....
(Note: previous company is in difficult financial crisis and its closing down.....)
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I also totally agree on this.
There is a Spanish saying about this: "La ignorancia es valiente."
Translation more or less literal: "Ignorance is brave."
Pedro J. Molina
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There is a similar saying in English: "Ignorance is Bliss"
Or you could go way out and use George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty Four version: "Ignornance is Strength"
--Colin Mackay--
"In the confrontation between the stream and the rock, the stream always wins - not through strength but perseverance." (H. Jackson Brown)
Enumerators in .NET: See how to customise foreach loops with C#
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I find bosses with experience tend to be less helpful than those with. They speak about how they did things in their day. This kind of attitude does not aid in programming but hinders development as they come with their preconceptions of how things should be done and does not give you as a developer enough creative freedom.
However this does not mean every idea they suggest is bad it just makes it harder to accept.
That which has never truly lived - Can never truly die
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Same experience here - Our Boss was a great great when Win 1.0 was new (even wrote a book about that), but somehow stoped to evolve at this point.
So I am somewhat glad that he is mostly out and busy spreading the word.
Who is 'General Failure'? And why is he reading my harddisk?!?
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 Well Guys ,
It is not necessary that your Boss or Manager should have extensive programming experience . What i feel if your Boss or Manager is good in Understanding your problem and he is good in coming up with new ideas , no problem .
We have got lot of Books and Internet Free Codes and articles , by that we can find soultions to our problems .
Sachin Mundhra
sachinm@skinternational.com
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Experience is not necesarily required. But studying application design and the software development process is a requirement for a sucessful department.
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for me much more interesting is when he/she/it knowns clearly say what really wants than speaking me how to make it using sinclair basic
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FruitBatInShades wrote:
studying application design and the software development process is a requirement for a sucessful department
Sure - but it is not the project manager who is supposed to do this things. There are people whose expertise is SW architecture, just as there are people whose expertise is drawing marketing flyers using photoshop.
The manager only has to rely on the judgement of his experts.
Who is 'General Failure'? And why is he reading my harddisk?!?
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My boss is my partner.
He is holding 90% of the share of the company stocks
while I hold the remaining 10%.
He has zero programming experience. He is, at best,
a semi-power user for Windows.
As a result, we write programs that are simpler to use
than your typical WIN32 app.
He is extremly picky about the graphic user interface.
His role is mostly "the visionary" man behind the product line.
I find it difficult at times to explain to him that I can do
almost anything, given enough time. He seems to take it.
When he wants a feature to be done "this way" and it make hell
for me, I usually give him a counter proposal.
Our system is growing better and better all the time.
I am the expert in technology, He is the expert in the industry
field that is our target pool of customers. (Access control systems)
I find that even if we have a few heated arguments from time to time,
we end up with what looks like a success story.
I still have difficulties with the improvised project management
going on.
I must say that I am the last surviving programmer in my shop.
Too bad, because I am now stuck with 4 job descriptions:
(1) Win32 application developper (huge application there, 5.5 mb executable size)
(2) Firmware developper on a Motorola ColdFire embedded application for one type of microcontroller. (The core of the actual system), compiling at just over 200 KB, and
belive me, it's a huge app, w/o fat library or operating system overheads)
(3) Firmware developper on a bunch of PIC Micro accessory devices. Again, these devices are a huge importance in the whole. 
(4) Finally, I oversee some work contracted out to a local hardware development team. I supply technical specifications and they do some of the low level embedded stuff. I must say that they only work on newer stuff, they will not help with any of the above.
I am afraid my brains will blow up.
I have been managing the 1st part for over 1 year.
6 months ago, I took over the 2nd part, and it actually helps, belive it or not.
This week, I am taking over the PIC stuff. This is going to hurt.
So, I am paryly my own boss and luckyly, it seems to work for now.
My boss has zero experience in programming and I only wish that he could
share my uneasyness at working on too many types of projects on too many
platforms all the time.
Am I paranoiac or am I underestimating my abilities ?
Should I speak to a doctor or is this forum an appropriate place
for this sort of rambling ?
Am I on topic or what ?
Bamaco
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You'll break at some point. Throttle back.
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Should I speak to a doctor or is this forum an appropriate place
for this sort of rambling ?
No, you need one more man who can share your pain/load.
Hire me!!![Rose | [Rose]](https://www.codeproject.com/script/Forums/Images/rose.gif)
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That may not be a bad idea!
We are located in Laval, Quebec, Canada.
Where are you located.
C.V.'s anyone ?
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If it's about C++, I'm in!
Florin Crisan
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C++ for 2 out of 3 projects.
8 bit assembler for the PIC microchip project
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So should I send a CV or were you just pulling our legs?
Florin Crisan
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I had a simular job description for almost 13 years (IF IT INVOLVED PROGRAMMING - I DID IT)!
You need some one else to work with, because the number of job desciptions are going to increase. Oh, your ability to get things done quickly will increase, provided you can concentrate on one task long enough.
The future:
Day 1: You go into the office and believe you will be finish with the current project today. You are inform that a customer wants a new feature added to some software (you wrote). This is an important custormer, so the job needs to be done quickly (preferably today). Oh and there is a bug in the firmware that also needs to be fixed. Ok! Ok! A few hours go by and there is some other project that needs your attention. And when is that project you have been working on going to be finished! Arrrg! You are now modifying: (1) an old-VB application (you never wanted to write in the first place), (2) an old-C program, (3) an MFC application, (4) and the firmware for one of your companies projects.
And you thought this was going to be simple day! Of cource it isn't, it cann't be, it goes against nature. You see the problem is that you are almost finished with a project you liked working on; therefore, naturely, you must stop and work on other things until you forget what (damn I forgot). (keep lots of notes)
Sorry, that was just one of my bad days!
Sooner or later you need to get someone to work with, or you'll probably need that doctor.
INTP
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Yes, it's true: I need to take tons of notes. (I keep a huge txt file for each project)
Your description fits pretty well most of the days I have encountered last week.
I my case,
(1) I had to fiddle around with a "card writing application" (something that interfaces a smart card connected to the PC through a RS-232 to RS-485 adaptor)
(2) Fix a firmware bug for a portion of the program I did not even write, originally, so it meant going through the code and inserting a bunch of comments and all that.
(3) Add a couple of feature to please an important customer. Our company had made a mistake (not my fault this time, something to do with glue between glass and metal that did not hold and a delivery man almost getting scalped as a result) so I wanted to please that client and add the features right away.
(4) Then there was this client, who had an installation a few months ago that needed upgrade. Some of the firmware that I did not work on was not up to date, and the update procedure for that firmware was hellish, to say the least. So I went on to upgrade the firmware for that client (on a saturday morning)
Ok, I need help. I just hope that my partner can see the wisedom in hiring such help right now! (He will see it, I just hope that he is ready to pay for it. He takes care of finances and sales and I take care of technology)
This reminds me of the old chineese curse:
"may your life be interesting"
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I've known and worked with my current boss on and off since 1980. His last significant software effort was from the early '90's, and was in C. He has no major Windows, GUI, C++, .NET, Java, or other experience.
All that aside, he's still a good guy to work for. He realizes that he doesn't necessarily understand the nuts and bolts of what we are doing, and relies on his team to tell him what he needs to know. Where he excels is in understanding our 'problem space' and in dealing with the rest of the corporate hierarchy.
Given a choice, that's what I prefer in a manager. Someone well-versed enough in software development to at least understand the implications of what they commit their people to, yet they're not such a 'jock' that they hang over your shoulder and micromanage.
Software Zen: delete this;
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Of the software dev managers here, there is a pretty good mix. Some are programmers (and still program when they need to!), others may have better personal experience but are not necessarily technical. My immediate boss is moderately technical - I think she may have programmed long ago but doesn't on a regular basis. She does (with our permission, of course ) tinker with some quasi-programming stuff, like XML UI scripts and stuff.
There are a lot of engineers in upper management, not a lot of true software programmers, but at most are technical in some way. (at least the ones in charge of software development.)
No single raindrop believes that it is responsible for the flood.
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20 years ago (or so), my boss decided to write the software on which our company is now based. After a few days or weeks of trying, he realized that he couldn't do it, so he hired a programmer. I think this has a good effect on his management, since he knows that the job isn't "magic" and takes a lot of work. However, it also means that he doesn't understand it well enough to judge time, so we sometimes end up selling things that haven't been written yet...
John
"You said a whole sentence with no words in it, and I understood you!" -- my wife as she cries about slowly becoming a geek.
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