Delegate: It's Hard, but Necessary

For a lot of people, delegation is a tough nut to crack. But crack it, you must -- no matter what kind of business you're in. What's important to keep in mind is that someone you've delegated authority to may not do it exactly the way you do, but if it works, it is on schedule, on budget, and all that good stuff, that's what counts.

What brought this to mind is Simon Brown's post on Delegation and Software Architects. What I particularly like is Simon's subhead -- "Understand what's happening in just enough detail." Anything beyond that would seem to be micromanaging. His point is that as the architect, you don't have to make all of the decisions yourself, particularly when it comes to coding. As the architect, if you get bogged down in coding, says Simon, " there's probably little chance of you understanding how the entire system works at the code level."

Teamwork is about delegation and responsibility and, as Simon wraps up, focusing on "just enough" detail to get the job done.

Posted by Jon Erickson at 12:24 PM  Permalink