I was asked a few years ago if I wanted to climb up the corporate ladder and become a manager. My answer was kind of like this: "Yes, but no. I think it would be more useful to promote myself and X to technical leads (sort of having various people with a pseudo CTO position), keep us doing what we love, while steering a project based on the requirements. I want to lead the projects, I want the bigger paycheck, I want the extra responsibility; however, I want to keep coding and architecting solutions... I do NOT want to push paper around."
This days the "technical managers" are needed less (of course there are exceptions to this rule) and less. You need a technical lead that can influence projects, make decisions based on experience, and act as a link between the developers and businessmen. Nowadays, I don't code all day as I also have some managerial responsibilities, but the bulk (say 80% ~ 90% of the time) I'm stuck in Vim pushing lines of code. I find that 10% ~ 20% of my time can be devoted to actual managing and it's more than enough.
Tip for the businessmen: Don't assume you need a bunch of managers to steer your project into blissful completion, you might very well get your best and most respected senior developer and ask him to act as a link between the task-force and the executives. You keep your best men coding or administering technology, keeping their morale high (don't underestimate having your cake and eating it too), and save money on hiring a paper pusher who is probably going to be a nuisance to the ecosystem.
This days the "technical managers" are needed less (of course there are exceptions to this rule) and less. You need a technical lead that can influence projects, make decisions based on experience, and act as a link between the developers and businessmen. Nowadays, I don't code all day as I also have some managerial responsibilities, but the bulk (say 80% ~ 90% of the time) I'm stuck in Vim pushing lines of code. I find that 10% ~ 20% of my time can be devoted to actual managing and it's more than enough.
Tip for the businessmen: Don't assume you need a bunch of managers to steer your project into blissful completion, you might very well get your best and most respected senior developer and ask him to act as a link between the task-force and the executives. You keep your best men coding or administering technology, keeping their morale high (don't underestimate having your cake and eating it too), and save money on hiring a paper pusher who is probably going to be a nuisance to the ecosystem.