(In Agile) Where Do All The Managers Go?

(In Agile)
Where Do All
The Managers
Go?

Scott W. Ambler
•  Pioneered Agile Modeling and Agile Database
techniques in the early 2000s
•  Co-creator of the Disciplined Agile Delivery
(DAD) framework
•  Executive Transformation Coach
•  scott [at] scottambler.com
•  @scottwambler
© Disciplined Agile Consortium
Helps IT departments around the world become awesome
2

Our strategy:
Observe what
happens in practice
© Disciplined Agile Consortium 3

Let’s explore
three important questions….
What important trends are happening?
Where do managers fit into agile?
What can you do?

Important
Trends

Trend #1: Technical management tasks
are performed by the team

Trend #2: Leadership is addressed by
new roles
Team Lead Architecture
Owner
Product Owner
7

Trend #3: Experienced organizations
are moving towards stable teams
Work
Work Work
Work
8

Trend #4: Status reporting is being
automated away

Implications for Existing Managers
1.  Empowered teams
è Less work for managers to do
2.  New leadership roles
è Leadership is the responsibility of non-managers
3.  Stable teams
è Much less “resource management” is required
è Budgeting is greatly simplified
4.  Automated status reporting
è Less work for managers to do

Where do managers fit
into agile?

Disciplined Agile Delivery (DAD) Roles
Primary Roles
Secondary Roles (for Scaling)
Team Lead
Independent
Tester
Architecture
Owner
Product
Owner
Team
Member
Technical
Expert
IntegratorSpecialist
Domain
Expert
Stakeholder

Team Lead
•  Responsible for the effectiveness and continuous
improvement of the team’s process
•  Facilitates close collaboration between team members
•  Keeps the team focused on the project vision and goals
•  Removes impediments for the team and escalates
organizational impediments
•  Protects the team from interruptions and external
interference
•  Maintains honest communication between everyone on the
project
•  Coaches others in the use of agile practices
•  Prompts the team to discuss and think through issues when
they are identified
•  Facilitates decision making (but does not make decisions or
mandate internal team activity)
13

Potential “Management Responsibilities” for a Team Lead
14
Managing the project budget
Producing project status related metrics
E.g. Iteration burn downs, defect trend charts,
task boards
Assessing team members

Product Owner
•  The Stakeholder “proxy”
•  Go-to person for information on the solution
requirements
•  Prioritizes all work for the team
•  Participant in modeling and acceptance testing
•  Has access to expert stakeholders
•  Facilitates requirements envisioning and
modeling
•  Educates team in business domain
•  May demonstrate solution to key stakeholders
•  Monitors and communicates status to
stakeholders
•  Negotiates priorities, scope, funding, and
schedule
15

Team Member
•  Is a cross-functional, generalizing specialist
•  On small teams every team member is typically a
developer, but on larger teams non-developers may
appear
•  Volunteers to do any work that allows the team to most
efficiently deliver the work committed to for the
iteration
•  Seeks to both learn about other specialties as well as
coach others on their own specialty
•  Goes to the product owner for domain information and
decisions
•  Works with the architecture owner to evolve the
architecture
•  Follows enterprise conventions and leverages and
enhances the existing infrastructure
16

At scale you may need a few
people in specialized
management
roles

Potential Management Roles at Scale
•  Community of Excellence (CoE) Lead
•  Community of Practice (CoP) Lead
•  Data Manager
•  Functional Manager
•  Governor
•  Operations Manager
•  Portfolio Manager
•  Program Manager
•  Release Manager
•  Support (Help Desk) Manager

The Bad News: There Are Fewer
Management Positions in Agile Orgs
Before Agile
After Agile
19

The Good News: You Have Several
Choices Available to You

What can you do?

Observe what is actually happening

Be flexible

Choose to evolve

Questions and Answers
•  During the webinar on February 23, 2016 we received numerous
questions. We answered many of them during the webinar but did
not get to all of them.
•  We have written a blog answering the questions in detail at
http://www.disciplinedagiledelivery.com/where-managers-go/
•  There is also a recording of the webinar available from the
Disciplined Agile YouTube channel at
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcWJ20C86Mzxcsqb73AReHQ

Thank You!
scott [at] scottambler.com
@scottwambler
AgileModeling.com
AgileData.org
Ambysoft.com
DisciplinedAgileConsortium.org
DisciplinedAgileDelivery.com
ScottAmbler.com
Disciplined Agile Delivery

(DAD) is a process decision
framework
The key characteristics of DAD:
–  People-first
–  Goal-driven
–  Hybrid agile
–  Learning-oriented
–  Full delivery lifecycle
–  Solution focused
–  Risk-value lifecycle
–  Enterprise aware

Shuhari and Disciplined Agile Certification
At the shu stage you are beginning to
learn the techniques and philosophies of
disciplined agile development. Your
goal is to build a strong foundation from
which to build upon.
At the ha stage you reflect upon and
question why disciplined agile strategies
work, seeking to understand the range
of strategies available to you and
when they are best applied.
At the ri stage you seek to extend and
improve upon disciplined agile
techniques, sharing your learnings with
others.

Would You Like This Presented
to Your Organization?
Contact us at ScottAmbler.com

Scott Ambler + Associates is the thought leader behind the Disciplined
Agile Delivery (DAD) framework and its application. We are a boutique
IT management consulting firm that advises organizations to be more
effective applying disciplined agile and lean processes within the
context of your business.
Our website is ScottAmbler.com
We can help

(In Agile) Where Do All The Managers Go?

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