Lately I've been trying to distill the role of a software manager - by understanding the roles and goals, I can create a yardstick to measure my growth as a manager.

So far, I've gotten this list of what makes a good sofware manager:

• moderates technical fights and picks a side (compromises in software debates lend to a solution which neither party will claim ownership of - pick a side so one person has a vested interest in seeing through the decision)
• buffers the barrage of business plans from the C-levels to allow engineers to focus on their task at hand
• facilitates communication between engineers as well as outside the engineering team
• handles the dirty grunt work nobody wants to do (the little tasks that would distract engineers)
• delegates the important projects to the proper engineers without micromanagement
  
• gives freedom to engineers to pursue the action they think is right ...
• ...but is unafraid to drop in and say "no" if the engineer is going down the wrong path
  
• trains the skillset of engineers to match and exceed the manager's technical skillset
• manages the engineering schedule to make sure engineers remained challenged but not overwhelmed
• listens to the gripes of engineers
• drives the initiatives to fix broken processes
  
• grows each engineer, personally and professionally, to one day replace said manager
• is a mentor
  

The hardest part of managing, for me, is giving up that direct, visceral control over cutting code that yielded that feeling of "I created that." But lately, I've been taking great pleasure in making sure the trains run on time, and mentoring each person to reach the full extent of their skillset ... even if it takes them outside their comfort zone. There is no better feeling than hearing "You are a good teacher." The first time I got that kick was teaching in Korea, and it was quite a high. I'd like to think I'm impacting the lives of others in some significant way ...

Any of you other people involved in software got some more ideas?