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 What does a technical lead do?

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TSPoorfag899 P
post Aug 9 2020, 09:46 PM, updated 4y ago

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I find there are way more senior positions than technical lead position in Malaysia. Why is it so? As I know techlead still hands on coding right? In big company, they can be so many techlead, techlead backend, frontend, mobile, devops, I wonder what's the different btw senior and techlead.
bumpo
post Aug 10 2020, 10:43 AM

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simple analogy, take a pyramid for example, there is only 1 tip and a number of corner stones. rest are your generic blocks.
malleus
post Aug 10 2020, 11:27 AM

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QUOTE(Poorfag899 @ Aug 9 2020, 09:46 PM)
I find there are way more senior positions than technical lead position in Malaysia. Why is it so? As I know techlead still hands on coding right? In big company, they can be so many techlead, techlead backend, frontend, mobile, devops, I wonder what's the different btw senior and techlead.
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off topic, but aren't you the dup of somebody who got banned before?
FlierMate
post Sep 4 2021, 07:16 PM

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This is a joke posted by (former?) MS employee:

Information Passing

Programmer to Team Leader:

"We can't do this proposed project. **CANNOT**. It will involve a major design change and no one in our team knows the design of this legacy system. And above that, nobody in our company knows the language in which this application has been written. So even if somebody wants to work on it, they can't. If you ask my personal opinion, the company should never take these type of projects."

Team Leader to Project Manager:

"This project will involve a design change. Currently, we don't have any staff with experience in this type of work. Also, the language is unfamiliar to us, so we will have to arrange for some training if we take this project. In my personal opinion, we are not ready to take on a project of this nature."

Project Manager to 1st Level Manager:

"This project involves a design change in the system and we don't have much experience in that area. Also, not many people in our company are appropriately trained for it. In my personal opinion, we might be able to do the project but we would need more time than usual to complete it."

1st Level Manager to Senior Level Manager:

"This project involves design re-engineering. We have some people who have worked in this area and others who know the implementation language. So they can train other people. In my personal opinion we should take this project, but with caution."

Senior Level Manager to CEO:

"This project will demonstrate to the industry our capabilities in remodeling the design of a complete legacy system. We have all the necessary skills and people to execute this project successfully. Some people have already given in-house training in this area to other staff members. In my personal opinion, we should not let this project slip by us under any circumstances."

CEO to Client:

"This is the type of project in which our company specializes. We have executed many projects of the same nature for many large clients. Trust me when I say that we are the most competent firm in the industry for doing this kind of work. It is my personal opinion that we can execute this project successfully and well within the given time frame."

Source: http://www.wheaty.net/index.htm
twigky
post Sep 10 2021, 05:49 AM

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My opinion:

Tech lead responsible for all the code, regardless you are the one build it or not. For most of the big company, tech lead responsible on code review all the code before they merge to production. If anything goes wrong, techlead would be the first being contact and take care of it.
Taikor.Taikun
post Sep 13 2021, 03:09 PM

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Both senior manager and tech lead need to have strong leadership n software development skills but tech lead is more on technology than people management.

A tech lead has to help, guide even train team members w technical aspects of their jobs, explain new projects to team members, troubleshoot problems, check that software r updated, supervising system modifications, even conduct security audits.

It's like a Captain of a football team that checks the team, pass messages, even shout out encouragement if the lads done right.

In the past, there is no such official position called tech lead. A bunch of junior programmers will seek out senior members of their team or company for guidance n help. That's the unofficial tech lead but very very limited effect as no full commitment is there. Now this role is made official in the organisation.

Senior manager manages employees, assess their long-term goals n responsible for deadlines
SUScarrie89
post Sep 13 2021, 04:29 PM

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QUOTE(Taikor.Taikun @ Sep 13 2021, 03:09 PM)
Both senior manager and tech lead need to have strong leadership n software development skills but tech lead is more on technology than people management.

A tech lead has to help, guide even train team members w technical aspects of their jobs, explain new projects to team members, troubleshoot problems, check that software r updated, supervising system modifications, even conduct security audits.

It's like a Captain of a football team that checks the team, pass messages, even shout out encouragement if the lads done right.

In the past, there is no such official position called tech lead. A bunch of junior programmers will seek out senior members of their team or company for guidance n help. That's the unofficial tech lead but very very limited effect as no full commitment is there. Now this role is made official in the organisation.

Senior manager manages employees, assess their long-term goals n responsible for deadlines
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Most techlead suck because fail to coach junior. They are just good individual coder which make them a weak team leader.
hft
post Sep 13 2021, 04:31 PM

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QUOTE(Poorfag899 @ Aug 9 2020, 09:46 PM)
I find there are way more senior positions than technical lead position in Malaysia. Why is it so? As I know techlead still hands on coding right? In big company, they can be so many techlead, techlead backend, frontend, mobile, devops, I wonder what's the different btw senior and techlead.
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No need hands on, just supervise team.
abmawie
post Oct 9 2021, 08:56 AM

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It's just a fancy title for supervisor.
Find The Way
post Oct 9 2021, 03:35 PM

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Once, my Engineering Manager asked me to interview a candidate, that interview was scheduled to be on one hour later. I was in senior engineer role.

I: "What's the position about? What're the job scope and responsibilities for this position?"
EM: "This position is for Tech Lead role. Tech Lead A is in another interview, while Tech Lead B is on MC today. So I need someone to run this interview"
I: "What's your expectation on Tech Lead's job scope and responsibilities? As far as I know, TL A and TL B have different view on this. In fact my view is not exactly the same as theirs."
EM: "Hmm.... give me a minute, let me ask TL B and get back to you."

------

In my case, Both TL A and B were working in the same product division, same rank, reporting to the same Manager. TL A seldom touched code, but he's actively involved in code review. TL B didn't touch code for years, he usually diverts code review requests to senior engineers, unless it's something explicitly inquired by Manager or Director.

So... what is tech lead's job about? I'm pretty sure the answer varies from one company to another. In my case, even the manager who decided he needs to hire/promote someone as tech lead, did not have a clear answer.

This post has been edited by Find The Way: Oct 9 2021, 04:02 PM
silverhawk
post Oct 10 2021, 08:08 PM

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QUOTE(Find The Way @ Oct 9 2021, 03:35 PM)
Once, my Engineering Manager asked me to interview a candidate, that interview was scheduled to be on one hour later. I was in senior engineer role.

I: "What's the position about? What're the job scope and responsibilities for this position?"
EM: "This position is for Tech Lead role. Tech Lead A is in another interview, while Tech Lead B is on MC today. So I need someone to run this interview"
I: "What's your expectation on Tech Lead's job scope and responsibilities? As far as I know, TL A and TL B have different view on this. In fact my view is not exactly the same as theirs."
EM: "Hmm.... give me a minute, let me ask TL B and get back to you."

------

In my case, Both TL A and B were working in the same product division, same rank, reporting to the same Manager. TL A seldom touched code, but he's actively involved in code review. TL B didn't touch code for years, he usually diverts code review requests to senior engineers, unless it's something explicitly inquired by Manager or Director.

So... what is tech lead's job about? I'm pretty sure the answer varies from one company to another. In my case, even the manager who decided he needs to hire/promote someone as tech lead, did not have a clear answer.
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Tech Lead B sounds like his position is redundant? Why is he even in that role?
Find The Way
post Oct 12 2021, 09:22 PM

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QUOTE(silverhawk @ Oct 10 2021, 08:08 PM)
Tech Lead B sounds like his position is redundant? Why is he even in that role?
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Well, that was just an example of differences between two Tech Leads in the same team. They do have other job that's common, the primary one was to provide Engineering Manager with project estimate during project inception, so that manager can get back to stakeholder with project deadline.

The idea is, when a hiring manager doesn't have a clear picture about the expectation, naturally people reporting to him/her will have their own interpretation about what their job scope and responsibilities are. This is not specific to engineering function of course.

 

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