I'm currently reading a book, "The Three Meter Zone" by James D. Pendry, which is a sort of manual for NCOs in the Army. One of the points that is made is that we expect certain things from leaders, and that once we get to be leaders we should remember what we expected of leaders when we were subordinates.

So, this is a good time for me to write down what I expect out of our Technical or Project Lead, in case I ever achieve that lofty goal. Not as if that'll happen any time soon, as I'd rather get a few more years of seasoning before being promoted that high.

What do I want in a Project Lead? Leadership. I need someone to provide direction for the project. As developers, we do what we're told. I expect to present my findings and recommendations for a design and have a decision of which direction to take.

It's annoying and frustrating when I can't tell what the Project Lead really wants to do. A Lead who is unsure of himself and shows it will only confuse the developers. Even if you are unsure of the project, don't let your developers think that you don't know what's going on. They'll lose respect in you and the project.

A second thing I expect of the Lead is to keep in touch with the developers and their progress. Talk to your developers every day to make sure they don't have any problems and that they're doing all right. This can be hard since my natural inclination is to say that I'm doing ok and not complain about the little things. You don't want a bunch of whiny developers but you need to foster an environment where developers can bring their problems to you.

A Technical Lead is still a developer. I don't expect them to do any of the actual development, but I do expect them to know the technology and pick up on the details, or at least get me to explain it to them if I'm unclear. As a developer, I consider it a personal failing if the Lead has to do part of my job -- it doesn't matter if I'm overworked or whatever. The Lead needs to know our job but not actually do it.

The Lead needs to fill out all the paperwork for the Project. He needs to make sure we're creating all the necessary documents and code and that everything is correct. The Lead steers the Project and keeps it on the company release process. Again, the Lead is a coordinator, he should not be writing Architecture documents, updating the web site, making sure the code is ready for the next code freeze.

The Lead is the interface for the Project and official outside channels. Higher ups, sales people, product management, other managers should go to the lead to find out about the Project and coordinate. I don't want a sales consultant to come and ask me about the project I'm working on.

I expect the Project Lead to keep us on schedule. He needs to make sure the developers are on schedule, that we're not doing doing too much at the cost of missing deadlines. A Project Lead has to be able to reassign resources on-the-fly to help any subprojects that are in trouble.

I think those are the things I expect of a Project Lead. I realize that some of the points are rather similar, but they're important. I know that the Lead's job is a tough one, one that requires a different set of skills than that of a developer. Hopefully when the time comes I'll have these words to remind me of what to live up to when it's my turn to lead a project.

So, to summarize, I expect a Lead to:

1. Provide direction
2. Communicate with developers
3. Make sure the project is on the release train
4. Be the interface for the project
5. Keep the project on track