Comment by msclrhd

The tricky part of this is that not all programmers make good managers, or want to be promoted into management. They are different skill sets. That said, having a basic understanding of the difficulties and things that take time (learning new technology, investigating/debugging an issue, etc.) would be a good thing to have as a manager. Also, being able to assist where possible -- asking if the developer needs someone to help out, finding people with the relevant skills to mentor the developer (or finding suitable courses/training/books), etc.