What do you mean by "coding at a professional rate"?
The reason managers should code is more so that they maintain familiar with the state of the codebase. There's no particular output rate required for this, they don't even need to merge their changes, but they should be getting their hands dirty and making sure they still know how the pieces fit together.
I wouldn't trust a long term plan from someone with their head in the clouds. They have to be able to see the ground to draw a roadmap.
If they close a few tickets here and there, that's just icing on the cake.
TFA says the manager should be in the code but not necessarily writing code. I disagree. The only way to be in the code is to write it, even if you throw away what you write. I agree with TFA that the manager should not be in the critical path (unless there's some sort of crisis). But I don't think they can keep current in the state of the code by just reviewing PRs, unless they're a real coding genius.
The reason managers should code is more so that they maintain familiar with the state of the codebase. There's no particular output rate required for this, they don't even need to merge their changes, but they should be getting their hands dirty and making sure they still know how the pieces fit together.
I wouldn't trust a long term plan from someone with their head in the clouds. They have to be able to see the ground to draw a roadmap.
If they close a few tickets here and there, that's just icing on the cake.
TFA says the manager should be in the code but not necessarily writing code. I disagree. The only way to be in the code is to write it, even if you throw away what you write. I agree with TFA that the manager should not be in the critical path (unless there's some sort of crisis). But I don't think they can keep current in the state of the code by just reviewing PRs, unless they're a real coding genius.