How can you create trust between engineering and management?

The software development industry is very much like a dysfunctional family. Executives don't trust that engineering will deliver what they say they will deliver and they don't trust it will be on time. Engineers think that executives set unreasonable goals and don't provide them with the resources to succeed. What can you do to engender trust as a manager?

Here are some basics:

• Be feature agnostic
• Be completely open about schedules
• Give executives some choices
• Provide information early about risks and their mitigation
• Provide non-confrontational opportunities for executives to interact with engineering
• Be responsible

Many engineering managers get very passionate about what should be in the product. Passion is good but you must set a boundary for yourself. It is product management's job to take input from the field, engineering, and competition and set priorities. If you appear in the slightest to be sandbagging or subverting in order to push your own agenda, you will lose trust. If you are objective, it is easier to gain trust.

Give all of your information to anyone who wants to see it including schedules and designs. Hiding information reduces trust. If someone does not like the plans your team has developed, have an open discussion. Get down into details. Remove the mystery. It will be painful at first, but people will gain trust over time. If someone wants to argue about the length of time for a particular item, stand your ground. They hired you for your expertise and if they cannot allow you to do your job, your company will have big issues and trust may not be possible.

Make sure you provide alternatives. Consider the following alternatives:

• Existing resources, normal work schedules
• Existing resources with extra effort
• Extra resources
• Phasing features
• Modified release dates

The point is to not come into your boss and say "This is the only thing we can do". Everyone knows there are always choices. If management knows you have looked at the possibilities, It will build trust and confidence in you and your team.

Make sure you are the one informing your management when there are risks. Do not go in and expose a risk without some plan to mitigate that risk. When your boss hears things about your group from others before they hear it from you, it reduces their trust in you and your team.

If the only time your team interacts with management, is when something is going wrong, then it will be hard for you to trust each other. Find informational, social, research and other reasons to meet and build a relationship between you, your team and the executives.

Finally, try to make sure your team meets it commitments. If they can't, take responsibility and make sure that you and your team are working as hard as possible to make it up.

There is a lot more to this, but the above items are a good start.

More later ...