Leading and Managing in Silicon Valley : Successful Engineering Entrepreneurs' Best Practices and Career Guidance for Tomorrow's Technical Leaders on Leadership, Management, Development, and Business [Hardcover]

Thomas Hempel (Author), Marilson Campos (Author), Leo Dagum (Author), Sam Hahn (Author), Ed Komo (Author), Byron S. Lee (Author), Mike Moody (Author), Jacob. A. Taylor (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0615283659 | ISBN-13: 978-0615283654 | Publication Date: April 1, 2009 | Edition: 1st

Containing the ideas, practices, and histories of a group of Silicon Valley VP's, directors and CTO's with more than 400 man-years of experience running engineering teams in Silicon Valley, this book contains everything you need to know to successfully run a hi-tech engineering organization. Honest and comprehensive, this book will save you time and pain in dealing with people, technical and business issues. This book covers the topics you need to know to get the job done right. It's what we would have wanted to know the day we took the job! You will learn how to develop your career as a senior technical leader, and how the job evolves from a startup to an established organization, including the challenges of very rapid growth. The book looks at all components of the complete product development lifecycle, from product planning to development to support, giving practical advice for the leader as to what to do in each phase. It looks at team leadership, dynamics and development, with topics ranging from developing team culture to meeting management to personnel development, as well as dealing with difficult situations. The difficult challenges of build-versus-buy decisions, offshore and outsourced development are also reviewed. Finally the connections of the engineering leader to the other executives and teams in the company are studied. Each chapter is illustrated with real life examples. The focus throughout is on realism - illustrating successes as well as problems and challenges, especially the kind of daily life situations that you only learn on the job. All in all, in this book, you will find an overview all the major topics anyone running an engineering organization is likely to face!

Editorial Reviews

Review

If you're looking to make the career jump from Engineer to Engineering manager, this book provides a toolkit that will let you learn from some of the top Engineering VPs and CTOs in Silicon Valley. There are lots of books about management and lots of books about software engineering, but this is the only book that teaches you how to become a great leader in an engineering organization. --Zack Urlocker, VP Database Products, Sun Microsystems

A must read for all engineers who wish to have a successful management career. or. The book offers deep and critical insights into why many engineers do not succeed as managers. A practical guide to a successful management career in engineering driven companies. -- Rajiv Lal, Harvard Business School

Review

A must read for all engineers who wish to have a successful management career. or. The book offers deep and critical insights into why many engineers do not succeed as managers. A practical guide to a successful management career in engineering driven companies.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 472 pages
• Publisher: ExcellentLeader; 1st edition (April 1, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0615283659
• ISBN-13: 978-0615283654
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #522,370 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent (and practical) guide to Engineering Management, June 26, 2009

By 

So Lau (San Mateo, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Leading and Managing in Silicon Valley : Successful Engineering Entrepreneurs' Best Practices and Career Guidance for Tomorrow's Technical Leaders on Leadership, Management, Development, and Business (Hardcover)

This is a first of a kind book. Written by a cohort of authors that have successfully made the transition from engineering to executive leadership, it's been eye opening to read the examples and advice. I certainly wish this book had been around when I first made the switch from individual technical contributor to manager. Recommend it highly!

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great lessons about technology, management, and organizations, June 20, 2009

By 

AR (Richmond, VA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Leading and Managing in Silicon Valley : Successful Engineering Entrepreneurs' Best Practices and Career Guidance for Tomorrow's Technical Leaders on Leadership, Management, Development, and Business (Hardcover)

Thomas Hempel and team do a great job of giving new and old technology leaders lessons on management, technology, and organizational structure. This book is a great guide for those thinking about getting into an engineering leadership position, those who have to work with engineering/technology leaders, and those who just landed in a leadership position and are wondering, "What now?". Lessons are drawn on real life experiences and cover topics from development methodologies to dealing with people issues to managing c-levels and the board. It's like having a mentor on your bookshelf to whom you can ask all those questions you were afraid to ask.

5.0 out of 5 stars Leading and Managing in Silicon Valley, January 26, 2010

By 

Andy (Berkeley, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Leading and Managing in Silicon Valley : Successful Engineering Entrepreneurs' Best Practices and Career Guidance for Tomorrow's Technical Leaders on Leadership, Management, Development, and Business (Hardcover)

Leading and Managing in Silicon Valley is an excellent book with both thoughtful ideas and practical guide in technical management. I know one of the authors who has many years' solid technical management experience. This book was written by a group of his peer VPs/CEOs, and I think it makes this book different from others in this subject in the following aspects:

1. The authors know clearly what the technical manager's career path is and which problems they encountered, are encountering or will encounter. Therefore, the materials that they put in this book are meant to be useful for understanding the big picture as well as solving practical problems in an organized and efficient manner.

2. The materials are clearly organized by the functions in an engineering organization, so that the reader can quickly jump to the section that they want to read. Plus its wide coverage in the technical management issues, this book can even be used as a manual or a reference book for those who are currently in the technical management positions or aspiring to achieve them.

3. The book was written on Wiki in an inovative way. Is it a trend for collaborative book writing?