Features of national management

Instead of an epigraph: "Managers can be different - black white red ..."

And once again instead of an epigraph: “And I live here ... And I want everything to be somehow normal in this country” - Duhless

Almost a year and a half has passed since the publication of the first part of the Marlezons ballet. Then the focus was on processes, software development methods in today's realities, on how two worlds - childishly naive and simple engineering and sometimes very foul-smelling "business" trying to sit at the same table. Whether something has changed for the better is doubtful, but I think one way or another it is worth continuing and shifting the focus from reviewing the processes to reviewing people, or rather, those who should determine these processes, put them on projects, namely, product managers. or project managers or project managers, "their name is legion."
Then, a year and a half ago, I mentioned “a separate, large and rather sad conversation,” but I specifically decided not to mix salt with soft and leave this topic for later, and it turned out not in vain. The past tense has given the richest food for thought and observation, and now you can make a small timid attempt to systematize and summarize something.
In biological systematics, there are seven classifying concepts that make up a certain classification hierarchy. For the classification and description of managers, I think such a deep hierarchy will be absolutely unnecessary, and here it is quite possible to limit ourselves to operating with the basic unit of this structure - the view. A species is a certain group of individuals, having, among other things, common behavioral signs, common in a certain range and changing in a similar way under the influence of environmental factors. In general, what you need.
So, armed with this method for grouping, you can try to move on and consider ontogenesis and the main features of each species. Actually I counted only three types.
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The manager is black.
He (she) is someone's school friend (friend). Or institute. Or just grown in the same yard. Before starting to work as a project manager, development does not know anything about development. Or almost nothing. And in general, why should an oceanologist or a plumber seller know something about software development, well, really stupid. His Majesty decides a lot, not everyone drank beer with future directors or top managers, but everything is simple, a couple of moments, and now he is in charge . Charisma tends to zero, knowledge, too. Habitat - of course the company (department, department) led by his old friend "the bird of happiness of tomorrow." At the same time, the “bird of happiness” is not a talker bird at all, and does not differ in intelligence and ingenuity, rather, quite the opposite, because it condemns the team of professionals to be led by an outspoken layman and amateur, and puts the whole production process at risk, not to mention nerve cells developers. Of course, in the overwhelming majority of cases, this whole story is typical only for domestic companies, and there is absolutely nothing to be surprised at, the cronyism and cronyism have become almost official personnel policies even at the state level, and business, like a good “younger brother”, does not hesitate, takes an example from “ older. "

The manager is red.
He (she) creates an impression , and very favorable. Not all this is given, and this is a fact. Perhaps he (she) two weeks ago also sold plumbing. Or maybe washing powder. Or maybe he didn’t trade, and he didn’t work at all - a young adorable institute creation with a diploma in his teeth, maybe even brutal red. The truth may be a diploma at all and not about software, but about the development of medical equipment, for example, or a diploma and not engineering at all, but the charisma overshadows everything, even the perpendicular institute (university) direction of training.
Unlike the black manager, who at least knows for sure that he knows nothing, individuals of this species are usually very self-deluded. In general, “to seem, not to be” is their creed and instruction on survival. Habitat - mostly again homegrown domestic software developers. The motivation of the leadership in hiring such “personnel” is apparently mostly image-based - a good impression on the customer, a purely positive image of the company associated with pretty, mostly girlish faces, an illusion of success, knowledge, speed and quality.
"Startup kinder surprises" can be referred here as a subspecies. “Startup Kinder Surprise” is a doubly, triple, funnier creation than the classic red manager. The instant take-off of the career ladder, a light, (or very hard) “dizzy with success” often so dulled the unhappy head that the sense of reality is completely lost, and the role of his personality in history begins to seem global, although not everyone’s global is global; the most is dilettantism and profanation of project management.

The manager is white.
These are really cool and in most cases make you treat yourself with a certain reverence. He (she) in the development of 10-15-20 years, has gone all the way from an ordinary (junior) developer (QA) to some management position. Pud salt was eaten honestly, to the last granules. He (she) has the main thing that distinguishes the leader from nonsense - the moral right to lead . The habitat of representatives of this species is branches of large western companies or Russian top companies engaged in custom development for European (American) partners. The fact that they are actually engaged in efficiently managing the sale of cheap Russian programmer "meat" to the west confuses them a little, and indeed, why should they be embarrassed - in the end they are kind of winners, "kings of beasts" who managed to survive and take Great warm-soft place in the sun in this jungle. The European (American) partners are also well aware of everything, and who knows, maybe today or tomorrow he (she) will get on a “plane with a silver wing, that taking off leaves only shadow” and will go to Boston, or maybe to Prague , and will take the place of the director of some R & D department.

A couple of lines instead of a conclusion.
Considering the reasons that made the situation that produced the emergence and spread of managers of the first two types possible (which, of course, can be managers in a software development company, only in most cases managers with the prefix “cleaning”), exclusively engineering field. Healthy competition, fair open tenders for the development, working and transparent legislation, including tax, simple and adequate procedures for registering legal entities, a simple and understandable accounting reporting scheme - all this would help a sufficient number of new players to enter the market. I do not think that, to put it mildly, “chronic losers” east of Poland, I don’t think that the Russian engineering school is a dead end. State, state, turn back to the forest, to the people in front, give a chance here and not in the Czech Republic or Cyprus to start the game and win all these young and ambitious "pale young men with burning eyes" or vice versa battered lives and tired of the established clinical idiots to professionals. In the presence of healthy competition, organizations that rely on kickbacks and gray schemes, on cronyism and cronyism, on the laymen and children who have played at the pupae who spit on quality, on the process, and ultimately on users, will find themselves in the very place where it is supposed to be, and healthy, professional and conscientious players will determine the market. Illusions, a naive, overly idealistic view of the current realities of the Russian Federation are possible, but, as they say, “everything flows, everything changes,” life is a synonym for dynamics.