For about eight months I managed a development team doing a re-write of a web ba

Question

For about eight months I managed a development team doing a re-write of a web based application. During this time, I was focused on many aspects of the project that did not involve directly writing code, even though by trade that's what I started out as.

Recently the number of developers assigned to the project has dropped and I am now forced to drop back into a developer/management role. Since that time I have found that it's very difficult to focus on a feature and get it completed while at the same time trying to stay ahead of the other developers and make sure that we're keeping on track.

My questions is this: can you successfully keep managing a project when you are forced back into development?

Explanation / Answer

You know the saying "can't see the forest for the trees". When you're managing, your job is to tend the forest. When you're writing code, your job is to grow a tree. I've found that when I take my hands off code, I'm a better manager. I'm able to interact with my team and keep the pulse of the project. The second I drop down to writing code, that high level view has to go away or I won't be an effective coder.

I don't know a way around this, you can't manage a team and write code at the same time. One or the other of those tasks will suffer as a result.

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