If We’re Agile… Why Do We Need Managers? Ron Lichty, principal, Ron Lichty Consulting author, Managing the Unmanageable www.RonLichty.com, www.ManagingTheUnmanageable.net
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If We Are Agile, Why Do We Need Managers? (AgileIndy, 5.14)
A common misconception about agile is that managers are unnecessary. After all, agile is based on self-organizing teams. If the teams organize themselves, what do managers do?
Unfortunately, most scrum training plays into that. Think about it: how many trainers or coaches have you seen sketch the structure of a scrum team with a drawing that includes a manager? While there's always a scrum master and a product owner, the core team and maybe some stakeholders, have you ever seen a manager in that drawing?
This misconception can be a problem all around: A frequently cited barrier to agile adoption is managers who don't know what to do when their teams become self-managing. When they're not included in training, how would they (or anyone else, for that matter) know how to characterize their role. At the same time, organizations often lay down expectations of managers, some compatible with agile, some not.
Agile has clearly shifted the old roles and responsibilities. Managers bent on command-and-control are clearly a barrier to agile adoption. But managers who take a hands-off approach or are treading water in a sea of ambiguity will almost certainly stymie adoption, as well.
Ron Lichty believes (and so do a lot of the early agile thought leaders) that managers have critical roles to play in enabling success, both of transitions to agile and of agile itself. This session is about those roles.
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Transcript
If Were Agile Why Do We Need Managers?"! " "Ron Lichty,
principal, Ron Lichty Consulting author, Managing the Unmanageable"
www.RonLichty.com, www.ManagingTheUnmanageable.net "
* Addison Wesley published October 2012 *
Ron Lichty, Managing Software People & Teams SOFTWEST
Why we wrote: * Addison Wesley published October 2012 *
Management Training Isnt it odd... how long we expect you to
have studied the art of programming" how little we expect you to
have studied the art of managing?"
Management Training Courses with Impact" Managers and the Law"
Situational Leadership" Reective Listening"
Management Training Agile"
Why we wrote: * Addison Wesley published October 2012 *
Rules of Thumb / Nuggets of Wisdom* * 300 in the book
10 The Problem: Where Is the Manager? ScrumTeam.jpg (from
Exploring Scrum- the Fundamentals, by Dan Rawsthorne & Doug
Shimp)
11 The Problem: Where Is the Manager?
the Agile Manager Squeeze youyouyouyou herehereherehere
areareareare
OrganizationalOrganizationalOrganizationalOrganizational
ChangesChangesChangesChanges My JobMy JobMy JobMy Job
ChangesChangesChangesChanges TeamTeamTeamTeam
ChangesChangesChangesChanges Peer & PartnerPeer &
PartnerPeer & PartnerPeer & Partner
ChangesChangesChangesChanges
LeadershipLeadershipLeadershipLeadership
ChangesChangesChangesChanges Welcome to Agile! --Agile Learning
Labs, Laura Powers
Managers and Agile A common misconception is that because of
this reliance on self-organizing teams, there is little or no role
for leaders of agile teams. Nothing could be further from the
truth. --Mike Cohn, Succeeding with Agile
Agile Management Roles Familiar management roles teams still
need Management roles that are new with agile Roles (and styles)
that are inappropriate Roles that are deprecated Roles that change,
sometimes dramatically
Managing the Unmanageable: Rules, Tools, and Insights for
Managing Software People and Teams Whats unique about managing
programmers Whats unique about programmers Finding and Hiring Great
Programmers Getting New Programmers Started Off Right Managing
People / Managing a Team Managing Up, Out, and Yourself Motivating
Programmers and Teams Establishing/Nurturing a Successful Culture
Managing Successful Software Delivery
Managers and Agile Exercise!
Managers and Agile Creating an Agile Culture Supporting Agile
Values Empowering Self-Organization & Excellence Removing
Impediments Counseling, Coaching and Mentoring Hiring and
Firing
Managers and Agile Creating an Agile Culture
Managers and Agile Creating an Agile Culture McGregor's X-Y
Theory
Managers and Agile Creating an Agile Culture Lean-Agile
management is the art of leading people, not managing them...
Leading people involves creating the correct environment, focusing
them on the right things, and trusting them to do their work... In
Lean-Agile, the manager has two primary responsibilities: setting
the outcomes or goals expected of the team; assisting the doers in
creating a better process and workspace to get their jobs done...
--Alan Shalloway, Net Objectives
Managers and Agile Creating an Agile Culture
Managers and Agile Creating an Agile Culture Supporting Agile
Values Empowering Self-Organization & Excellence Removing
Impediments Counseling, Coaching and Mentoring Hiring and
Firing
Managers and Agile Supporting Agile Values
Managers and Agile Supporting Agile Values Methodology You Use
Methodology You Associate with Increase Prots Agile Blended (Some
Waterfall and Some Agile) Lean Waterfall Agile 73.9% 13.0% 9.8%
0.0% Blended (Some Waterfall and Some Agile) 31.8% 46.2% 10.6% 6.1%
Lean 14.3% 0.0% 42.9% 14.3% Waterfall 15.8% 50.0% 18.4% 13.2% Don't
Know 5.3% 42.1% 26.3% 5.3%
Managers and Agile Supporting Agile Values The Agile Manifesto
We value: Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
Working software over comprehensive documentation Customer
collaboration over contract negotiation Responding to change over
following a plan -- http://agilemanifesto.org/
Managers and Agile Supporting Agile Values Value the Agile
Manifesto over sets of practices We value: Individuals and
interactions over processes and tools Working software over
comprehensive documentation Customer collaboration over contract
negotiation Responding to change over following a plan --
http://agilemanifesto.org/
Managers and Agile Creating an Agile Culture Supporting Agile
Values Empowering Self-Organization & Excellence Removing
Impediments Counseling, Coaching and Mentoring Hiring and
Firing
Managers and Agile Empowering Self-Organization &
Excellence When teams self-organize there's still plenty for
managers to do... a managers job is to engineer the organization so
that teams can do their best work. --Esther Derby, co-founder,
Scrum Alliance
Managers and Agile Empowering Self-Organization &
Excellence Be a damper to the noise. --Joe Kleinschmidt, CTO John
Evans, Winchester, Hants, United Kingdom,
www.thetippingpoint.co.u
Managers and Agile Empowering Self-Organization &
Excellence
Managers and Agile Creating an Agile Culture Supporting Agile
Values Empowering Self-Organization & Excellence Removing
Impediments Counseling, Coaching and Mentoring Hiring and
Firing
Managers and Agile Removing Impediments Managers are still
needed. Not so much for their planning and controlling ability, but
for the important job of interfacing on the teams behalf with the
rest of the organization. --Diana Larsen, co-author, Agile
Retrospectives
Managers and Agile Removing Impediments Ensure your team has
slack! (100% capacity begets bottlenecks!) --photo (c) Bud Adams,
SXC, www.aimpgh.com
Managers and Agile Removing Impediments: Protect team focus!
(Guard against the waste of multitasking!) --photo (c) jeweledlion,
http://www.ickr.com/photos/jeweledlion/1502706553/ Some rights
reserved
Managers and Agile Creating an Agile Culture Supporting Agile
Values Empowering Self-Organization & Excellence Removing
Impediments Counseling, Coaching and Mentoring Hiring and
Firing
Managers and Agile Counseling, Coaching and Mentoring Photo by
Esti Alvarez, Some rights reserved,
http://www.Flickr.com/photos/esti/4638056301/
Managers and Agile Creating an Agile Culture Supporting Agile
Values Empowering Self-Organization & Excellence Removing
Impediments Counseling, Coaching and Mentoring Hiring and
Firing
Managers and Agile Hiring and Firing Always be recruiting!
--Mickey Mantle and Ron Lichty, Managing the Unmanageable: Rules,
Tools, and Insights for Managing Software People and Teams
Managers and Agile Hiring and Firing Always be recruiting! Deal
with problem employees!
Managers and Agile Critical to agile transformational success
Key roles in agile Engage managers Clarify managerial roles
Ron Lichty Consulting Mentoring, coaching, interim and acting
CTO / VP Eng roles: http://ronlichty.com, [email protected] The
book: Managing the Unmanageable: Rules, Tools & Insights for
Managing Software People & Teams
http://ManagingTheUnmanageable.net