Engineering Management Nugget #4: Guardrails Over Control

Source: Dev.to

Control vs Guardrails

Control often shows up as:

• frequent check‑ins
• approval gates for small decisions
• defining implementation details
• monitoring activity instead of outcomes

Guardrails, on the other hand, look like:

• clear goals and success criteria
• explicit constraints around time, scope, and quality
• shared standards and principles
• predictable review and feedback loops

How This Works in Practice

Before work starts, make the why explicit. Then align on:

• priorities
• non‑negotiables
• acceptable trade‑offs

Use metrics and checkpoints as signals, not enforcement mechanisms.

Takeaway

An effective EM does not control execution. Guardrails require trust and patience, but they scale far better than control.