This document discusses the role of management in agile environments. It argues that while agile teams are self-organized, management is still needed to create and support agile entities at different levels of an organization. The agile manager aligns inside and outside views to maximize value creation. They grow structure, empower teams, energize people, develop competence, align constraints, and improve everything - functioning like an integrator, thought leader, investor, coach, and orchestra conductor. Ultimately, the agile manager creates and supports collaborative agile value delivery systems throughout the enterprise.

1. Agile Management Honey I shrunk the Manager ! … or did I ? A brief thought surf by Mahadevan L P (Dev)

2. Agile Management ? Agile teams are self organized and self managed by definition. So… why then do we need management and managers in an Agile delivery context ?

3. What is so different about Agile delivery ? Fundamentally, Agile delivery focuses on value creation by running small, time boxed PDSA cycles – The Agile PDSA PDSA means Plan -> Do -> Study -> Adapt

4. Who runs the Agile PDSA ? Everybody, starting at an individual to the entire enterprise

5. Who runs the Agile PDSA ? – Example 1 : The Agile developer Plan – Write failing test Do – Write code to pass the test Study – Run the failing test and check result. Run regression tests and check result. Infer. Adapt – Change Code or Test based on inference Repeat above steps many times in the day Key Success Factors : Attitude, Knowledge and Skills of Agile developer

6. Who runs the Agile PDSA ? – Example 2: The Agile team Plan – Plan user stories to develop in a sprint Do – Implement and validate user stories during the sprint Study – Demonstrate shippable user stories to stakeholders Adapt – Change future approaches based on team’s learning Repeat above steps many times during a release Key Success Factors : Attitude, Knowledge and Skills of Agile team as a whole

7. Who runs the Agile PDSA ? – Example 3: The Agile Program The Agile Program may consist of one or more Agile teams Plan – Plan user stories to develop in a release Do – Implement and validate user stories during the release through a number of sprints Study – Check if features can be released to external environment for realizing business value Adapt – Change future approaches based on team’s learning Repeat above steps many times during a release. Key Success Factors : Attitude, Knowledge and Skills of Agile team(s) as a whole

8. Who runs the Agile PDSA ? – The Agile Enterprise Continuing from the previous examples , an Agile Enterprise therefore has Agile PDSA cycles running at different levels of space-time abstractions in the enterprise. The Key Success Factor at each level in the enterprise is the synergized total of the Attitude, Knowledge and Skills at that level

9. The Agile entity A responsive, synergized combination of Attitude (A), Knowledge (K) and Skills (S) that runs Agile PDSA cycles for creating value Agile Entity = Σ(A, K, S) + Agile PDSA An Agile enterprise is a collaborative system of Agile entities !

10. Who Creates and Supports Agile Entities in an Agile Enterprise ? The Agile Management function

11. The Agile Manager … ….creates and supports collaborative agile entities aka Agile Value Delivery System (AVDS) at any level of abstraction in the enterprise ... Maximises value creation by aligning ‘outside in’ and ‘inside out’ views

12. A Create – Support Model for Agile Management

13. The Martie model Created by JurgenAppello Grow structure and Empower teams similar to Create function of Management discussed previously Energize People, Develop competence, align constraints and Improve Everything similar to Support function of Management Excellent way to symbolize the Agile Management function as flexible, having many perspectives, people oriented, firmly rooted, ….. perhaps even alien going by existing state of the practice !! http://www.flickr.com/photos/jurgenappelo/5201353461/

14. So what is an Agile Manager ? … An integrator ? A thought leader ? An investor ? A coach ? A many tentacled hydra like JurgenAppello’sMartie ? An orchestra conductor ? Perhaps a little bit of all of these ?? …. Honey ! did I really shrink the Manager ?? Still wondering….

15. Thank you ! Mahadevan L P (Dev) mahalp2@yahoo.com