The shortage of quality software engineers is an issue well known to anyone who has spent any time working in technology. What strikes me as remarkable is the possibly greater shortage of quality software development managers.

Over the past 12 years, my modestly successful career has taken me to companies huge and small. I have worked in a variety of capacities and industries in the Chicago technology scene. I have witnessed and been part of magnificent achievements and abysmal failures. In almost every case, the quality of the people involved has been the single defining factor between the two outcomes.

As rare is it is to find a true superstar technologist - and I've been fortunate to know a number of them - it seems even rarer to find a superstar development manager.

Naturally, it's unusual to find a superstar manager, period. The skills required to be a great manager, while not mutually exclusive from those of a great software developer, are quite different. Many of the managers who came from a technology background were promoted due to their technical skills, and lack those needed to succeed as a manager. Many managers who come from a non-technical background lack the ability to either understand how development works or to win the respect of their teams.

Having had some measure of success in this area, my goal is to write a series of articles that define some of the skills necessary to be a great technology manager. While bookstore shelves are overflowing with every variety of management tome and instructional guide, I've yet to see anything that appears to specifically address this very real and pernicious void.

To begin with, it's important to note that managing a great development team does not absolutely require that you have been a developer yourself. While it is certainly a significant advantage to have done so, I have known great managers who did not start in that area.

What I'm not sure about is whether or not you need to be awfully smart. I haven't yet met a great development manager who wasn't. Theoretically, it would seem possible, if you followed the right principles. I just haven't seen it yet.

So what are the "right principles"? Well, let's begin with Rule #1:

1) Learn to identify the people who actually get things done.

This seems simple enough, but I'm regularly stunned by the number of people at all levels who don't seem to be able to distinguish between those who get things done, and those who

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