In times of networking and the growing importance of platform economies, how can products and services be developed that inspire people? Which development methods and organisational forms are promising for this? Leaders and developers will find answers to these questions in this book. With their holistic approach, the authors look at the changing leadership roles that arise in the development of products and services: Is it, for example, about translating new ideas or unknown technologies into high-quality products? Or is it about working efficiently together in an international development alliance? The procedures and models were discussed and further developed in more than 10,000 theoretical and practical workshops with managers at Bosch worldwide. At its core is a leadership model that facilitates discussion and combines the skills needed to master technical issues with those needed to lead people. After an introductory chapter on fundamental questions such as the organization's purpose, values, and strategic goals, key elements of leadership in systems design are introduced, including requirements engineering, architecture design, and model-based development. The following chapters discuss concrete approaches and strategies to - Convert quality attributes, - to reduce risks, - to introduce a review culture, - manage complexity - Process conflicts - Define roles - to build teams. The structure of the book follows the process of developing and implementing strategic goals. However, each chapter can also be read on its own, as it forms a self-contained unit. This book makes the leadership task understandable, discussable and learnable for developers. It thus helps managers to shape change in their own field of work or to grow into a new role.

Many people think leadership is a higher calling that resides exclusively with a select few who practice and preach big, complex leadership philosophies. But as this practical book reveals, what’s most important for leadership is principled consistency. Time and again, small things done well build trust and respect within a team. Using stories from his time at Netscape, Apple, and Slack, Michael Lopp presents a series of small but compelling practices to help you build leadership skills. You’ll learn how to create teams that are highly productive, highly respected, and highly trusted. Lopp has been speaking and writing about this topic for over a decade and now maintains a Slack leadership channel with over 13,000 members. The essays in this book examine the practical skills Lopp learned from exceptional leaders—as a manager at Netscape, a senior manager and director at Apple, and an executive at Slack. You’ll learn how to apply these lessons to your own experience.

Many people think leadership is a higher calling that resides exclusively with a select few who practice and preach big, complex leadership philosophies. But as this practical book reveals, what’s most important for leadership is principled consistency. Time and again, small things done well build trust and respect within a team. Using stories from his time at Netscape, Apple, and Slack, Michael Lopp presents a series of small but compelling practices to help you build leadership skills. You’ll learn how to create teams that are highly productive, highly respected, and highly trusted. Lopp has been speaking and writing about this topic for over a decade and now maintains a Slack leadership channel with over 13,000 members. The essays in this book examine the practical skills Lopp learned from exceptional leaders—as a manager at Netscape, a senior manager and director at Apple, and an executive at Slack. You’ll learn how to apply these lessons to your own experience.

Part I Exploding the Myths Chapter One: Myths about Ourselves as Leaders Chapter Two: Myths about Leadership Chapter Three: Organizational Influences Chapter Four: Societal and Family Beliefs Part II Finding Your Inner Leader Chapter Five: The Truth about You Chapter Six: Assessing Your Leadership Potential Chapter Seven: Creating a Vision for What You Want Chapter Eight: Growing Your Leader Self; Seeking Support Part III Making a Difference Chapter Nine: Be the Change You Want to See Chapter Ten: Action Learning Chapter Eleven: Drawing Your Road Map Chapter Twelve: Relationships Are Key Part IV Why the World Needs You Chapter Thirteen: The Call to Leadership Chapter Fourteen: Broadened Perspectives Chapter Fifteen: Collaboration Across Borders Chapter Sixteen: Sustainable Leadership Conclusions Appendix Bibliography.

This book is meant to help the many engineers who are thrust into an engineering management position with little or no training. The book will cover everything from “where to start” on your first day to the management process, which is a feedback process designed to manage the engineer. Finally, we will cover the “Art” of managing engineers, which will address many of the difficulties you will face in your job and end up with how to transform yourself from a great engineering manager to a leader and earn the respect of your team. The book is organized into seven chapters. It starts with a description of “what” really is an engineering manager. It addresses the roles and goals of the engineering manager and covers a few simple rules that are humorous but will serve you well. Next, the book goes into where to start. Many engineers are put into a management position after they have been with a team long enough or their boss has moved on. They have little or no training on what to do and will often mimic their boss’s behavior, which can be good or bad, depending on the boss that they had. Following this, the book goes into the Science of Engineering management. This is a process designed to manage the day to day activites of the engineer. Then, the book describes what I call the “Art” of the engineering manager. How to deal with the unique characteristics of many engineers as engineers in general can be very opinionated and difficult to manage. Finally, the book will address how to transform yourself from just managing the team, to becoming a leader and how to earn the respect of your team.

A human-centric guide to solving complex problems in engineering management, from sizing teams to handling technical debt. There’s a saying that people don’t leave companies, they leave managers. Management is a key part of any organization, yet the discipline is often self-taught and unstructured. Getting to the good solutions for complex management challenges can make the difference between fulfillment and frustration for teams—and, ultimately, between the success and failure of companies. Will Larson’s An Elegant Puzzle focuses on the particular challenges of engineering management—from sizing teams to handling technical debt to performing succession planning—and provides a path to the good solutions. Drawing from his experience at Digg, Uber, and Stripe, Larson has developed a thoughtful approach to engineering management for leaders of all levels at companies of all sizes. An Elegant Puzzle balances structured principles and human-centric thinking to help any leader create more effective and rewarding organizations for engineers to thrive in.

This text is designed to provide a step-by-step development methodology for systems engineering. The text will allow those not familiar with the domain to work through examples and concepts, enabling them to become adept at the tools and methodologies of the systems engineering domain. This text is the only known publication that provides a how-to approach to the challenging topic of systems engineering.