12 Lessons Learned for Getting Better Results from Developers

1. Be a developer

I can’t stress this one enough. Development isn’t something that can be appreciated, it has to be experienced. HTML and JavaScript don’t cut it, you have to go out and actually do what your programmers do. Write SQL statements, create classes, build an application. When you can follow along and contribute intelligently to all the technology discussions, developers will start to trust you that you understand them and what they have to deal with. And most importantly you can help them find solutions they may not see yet.
(Link: 12 Lessons Learned for Getting Better Results from Developers)