Well – I’ve not posted for a while. But I *sort* of have an excuse. Around 7 or 8 months ago I was made the lead developer of the the Embeded Media Player (EMP) at the BBC. Big woops I hear all two of you say (I see the analytics, unless you’re a robot or you’re lost – maybe both) but EMP is actually quite a big deal. It is the Flash video player used throughout the BBC websites including the iPlayer site. So in a simplistic way I’ve been the lead developer for the Flash bit of iPlayer which sounds a bit more exciting.

This is the 2nd time I’ve been the lead dev of a team, but the first time I owned the company so they sort of had to do what I asked them to. I’m going to look in detail about this time as I started off as a part of the team and was asked to lead it. This makes for a completely different dynamic. Also new members joined after I was already the lead and needed to be integrated into the team. This was really interesting as once I’d got a handle over becoming a lead to people I’d been working with on the same level I then needed to work with people who joined the team where I was the boss (in the loosest possible term).

So over the next few posts I’m going to try and look at what I think a good lead needs to do, where they fit and probably most importantly how they can help (or hinder) a project manager. (Apologies in advance to Laura here)