WHAT DOES AN IT DEVELOPMENT MANAGER DO?
Published: Nov 11, 2025 - The Information Technology (IT) Development Manager leads the design and delivery of business solutions by analyzing system architecture, developing technical requirements, and overseeing end-to-end project execution. This role involves mentoring a team of software developers, ensuring alignment with development standards and best practices, and maintaining high performance through effective task delegation and performance reviews. The manager also collaborates with senior developers, monitors project timelines and quality, and stays current with evolving technologies to foster a culture of continuous improvement.
A Review of Professional Skills and Functions for IT Development Manager
1. IT Development Manager Duties
- Project Coordination: Coordinate with internal project teams, developers, stakeholders, contractors, and vendors.
- Scheduling Management: Develop detailed schedules for upcoming implementations and code changes.
- Resource Planning: Work with project managers to plan resource utilization across a diverse project portfolio.
- Software Implementation: Organize, plan, and implement software across all of Leslie's systems.
- Vendor Management: Work with onsite and offsite vendors to ensure SLA compliance and organizational value.
- Team Leadership: Plan and direct workstreams for other members of the development team and partners.
- Project Monitoring: Monitor progress and performance of assigned projects.
- Data Analysis: Make data-driven decisions and analyze a wide variety of complex solutions.
- Staff Training: Train junior development personnel and assess staff needs to improve workflow.
- Incident Response: Participate in the on-call schedule.
- IT Development: Develop in a fast-paced IT environment.
- Quality Assurance: Review work for quality and provide feedback.
2. IT Development Manager Roles
- Team Leadership: Keep the development team on track, remove blockers, interpret requirements, manage conflicts, and focus energy in the right places.
- Technical Architecture: Own the technical architecture and solutions as part of an application roadmap.
- SDLC Implementation: Implement a software development life cycle.
- Problem Management: Handle problem management, present and recommend ideas for improvements and upgrades.
- Performance Oversight: Review project progress and oversee the performance of all team members.
- Project Delivery: Facilitate the smooth delivery of all team projects, enhancements, and support.
- Security Design: Promote secure-by-design principles.
- Code Quality: Ensure good quality code is written, from complex custom code and new integrations to refactoring existing code and fixing bugs.
- Continuous Improvement: Create a focus on quality through small incremental changes and frequent delivery.
- Code Review: Ensure a code review process is in place and consistently followed.
- Vendor Relations: Create strong third-party support relationships and conduct service reviews.
- Team Management: Lead and manage the Software Development Team, conduct regular review meetings, monitor objectives, improve skillsets, provide training, and handle general people management.
3. IT Development Manager Roles and Details
- Operations Management: Manage day-to-day operations for global production and non-production SAS Cloud SaaS environments.
- Service Monitoring: Define and report on service health using data, metrics, KPIs, SLAs, SLOs, and SLIs.
- SaaS Governance: Create and manage SaaS standards and methodologies.
- Cost Analysis: Monitor and report on cloud service costs using data.
- Team Direction: Establish priorities and direction for the team through collaboration with the SAS Product and R&D teams.
- Department Management: Accomplish department objectives by managing staff, and planning and evaluating departmental activities.
- Staff Recruitment: Maintain staff by recruiting, selecting, orienting, and training employees.
- Employee Development: Perform all management responsibilities for the team, including coaching and fostering growth and development.
- Performance Management: Accomplish staff results by communicating job expectations, planning, monitoring, and appraising job results.
- Quality Assurance: Maintain quality by enforcing technical and customer service standards.
- Problem Resolution: Analyze and resolve quality and customer service problems.
- Team Contribution: Contribute to team efforts by accomplishing related results.
4. IT Development Manager Duties and Roles
- Staff Management: Provide direction and day-to-day management of development staff.
- Project Prioritization: Ensure that application development projects are prioritized, scheduled, and completed according to business needs.
- Mentorship: Guide and mentor associates in their career development and foster collaboration.
- Performance Evaluation: Conduct performance reviews and set standards for quality.
- Consultative Communication: Communicate and work with process owners in a consultative manner to review, interpret, and develop systems in accordance with requirements while resolving issues and roadblocks as they occur.
- Application Delivery: Ensure on-time and defect-free delivery of applications in accordance with Penske standards.
- Process Compliance: Ensure technical leads follow PDP processes and maintain management reporting.
- Stakeholder Alignment: Lead monthly meetings with process owners to ensure proper prioritization of projects.
- Cross-Functional Leadership: Oversee multiple systems and cross-functional projects.
5. Senior IT Development Manager Functions
- Project Administration: Responsible for project administration and record-keeping.
- Cross-Functional Collaboration: Responsible for multi-functional collaboration with other development teams and support functions.
- Career Development: Responsible for coaching and mentoring activities for team members and direct reports.
- Project Scheduling: Responsible for project scheduling and time management.
- Task Coordination: Responsible for delegation and coordination of development activities across each team.
- Resource Utilization: Ensure high utilization of resources while delivering world-class software across multiple platforms.
- Team Management: Manage a team and oversee staffing, communication, training and development, work prioritization, performance evaluation, and removal of roadblocks.
- Talent Acquisition: Build a diverse and effective team by identifying and selecting the best talent.
- Performance Management: Direct and prioritize work, manage performance, and provide guidance and coaching to team members.
- Culture Management: Manage the culture within the team, holding themselves and others accountable for demonstrating GM's values and cultural behaviors.
- Leadership Modeling: Model GM behaviors and foster a winning culture.
6. IT Development Manager Details
- Solution Design: Lead the scoping and design of business solutions.
- Technical Analysis: Study existing technology architecture, analyze browser compatibility techniques, evaluate solution alternatives, develop prototypes, and write detailed technical requirements.
- Team Leadership: Delegate tasks to, organize, mentor, and motivate a team of talented software developers.
- Continuous Improvement: Foster a culture of continuous improvement across all areas of technology and instill these principles within the development team.
- Project Planning: Collaborate with senior software developers to plan and execute projects.
- Resource Management: Ensure that teams have appropriate product and technical specifications, direction, and resources.
- Project Delivery: Deliver products effectively by establishing realistic timelines while ensuring projects stay on target to meet deadlines.
- Status Reporting: Provide detailed and timely status updates to management.
- Policy Development: Help establish and enhance development policies, procedures, and standards, and enforce their implementation among the development team.
- Technical Proficiency: Maintain technical knowledge and understanding of the latest development methodologies and best practices through education, professional publications, networking, and industry participation.
- Code Quality: Ensure quality and consistency throughout the architecture and implementation of the code base.
- Performance Monitoring: Monitor developer performance, establish improvement plans, and conduct annual reviews with management.
- Testing Oversight: Manage overall testing activities for supported and developed systems.
- Incident Response: Respond to occasional system errors, including during off-hours, and coordinate response efforts among the team.