I have run software teams for quite sometime now. So this is more of a rant than anything helpful but if you also run a software team maybe you can relate.
I took over as the first Software Director for Tamman Technologies earlier this year. The job has been great. I had a small team of 5 React developers and a healthy work load. There were some struggles that had to be overcome on the operations side of things but for the most part everything was running great.
Then the struggle began. Not only was I running a team that I was getting to know, within my first 30 days I lost two team members. Now, both of them claimed that it was a long time coming and that I was not the cause, but it is still a hit to your ego and confidence when you loose to devs within a few weeks of each other.
Now the fight is on, not only to backfill the positions but the workload that was good for 5 is now overwhelming for 3. I have had to crack my knuckles, put on my shades and hoodie, crank up the EDM and get to coding. Something that I have been a bit rusty at now that I have been a leader.
I took a class on Udemy and I have been relying on the members of my team to help me through making sure I can code as good as my top guys (actually I can, I’m just behind on this specific libraries quirks).
Plans and changes
So the major things that I need to do is staff my team. I want to make sure I keep a health support of the React development we do but I also see the need for other languages. I need Swiss army knives of coding, people that have picked up a ton of languages and knows when to use them.
Speaking of, anyone know a good resource for GitLab AutoDevops and Kubernetes?
I need to rebuild our infrastructure from the ground up, also I need to start getting the team more training and teaching some version control knowledge gaps.
This will be a long road in front of me but all and all, I am happy with the work we are doing and with how the team has held up despite the losses.