I'm a software dev manager for a software dev team of 7 (including myself) and the metric I've come across a few times is ~30% of your time should still be in dev and from my experience that's fair. There are days when I don't program at all but keeping my skills in constant use means more redundancy (I have a backup on the team (someone who can lead if I'm sick/on holiday/whatever) and I can provide backup for the senior devs and chip in when things get crazy. It also helps to keep me reminded of current dev concerns (the struggle of estimating, the frustration of sloppy requirements, etc). The company is under 20 employees but even if it were to double, I think I'd still like to keep my finger on the pulse of dev.
I'm a software dev manager for a software dev team of 7 (including myself) and the metric I've come across a few times is ~30% of your time should still be in dev and from my experience that's fair. There are days when I don't program at all but keeping my skills in constant use means more redundancy (I have a backup on the team (someone who can lead if I'm sick/on holiday/whatever) and I can provide backup for the senior devs and chip in when things get crazy. It also helps to keep me reminded of current dev concerns (the struggle of estimating, the frustration of sloppy requirements, etc). The company is under 20 employees but even if it were to double, I think I'd still like to keep my finger on the pulse of dev.
Thanks Richard, that's a great insight and good to know that you can manage both