Agile Managers?

What are we going to do with all the managers when we realize the vision of fully self-organizing teams? What incentive to managers have helping teams become more independent if they are in effect working themselves out of a job? I was up at the Agile Coaches Camp this past weekend in Ann Arbor, Michigan. A few of us bounced this idea around a bit and came up with a proposal.

On a self-organizing agile team, the resource manager is responsible for supporting their team's career development, personal growth, and training; they are also responsible for removing organizational impediments that hamper their team's ability to perform. Just as a ScrumMaster protects and supports the project team, the Resource Manager protects and supports the resource team.

What do you think? Too simple?

Comments

[Kevin Schlabach]

This clicked for me when my then CEO in a global 50 company presented to 3000 employees using a quote from a Dr. Seuss book. It was several pages about a town that kept hiring watcher's to watch watcher's to watch a bee-watcher to watch a bee to produce more honey.

He then said... 1- we're going agile, 2- some of you won't like it and leave 3- that's okay 4- most of those leaving will be managers because managing is not about watching and controlling, it's about serving those under you.

Maybe that is as much what made Agile click in my head as the Schwaber and Martin presentations.

So yes... I think it is that simple.

[Joca Torres]

I've writen a post in my blog ab out this topic:

http://www.yapmb.com/2008/04/what-changes-for-manager-in-team-moving.html

Besides the non-technical responsibilities mentioned above (people management, new employees training and team representation to the rest of the organization), there's now room for other responsibilities:

- help the Scrum Master remove the barriers to a successful sprint and overall agile adoption;
- help the Scrum Master coach and mentor the team members on the new process;
- revise the product backlog with the PO in order to bring a technical view of the stories.
- technical research, looking for new technologies and tendencies that could help the team;
- increase the focus on the technical strategic planning.

[abby]

I think the resource manager's role remains largely the same, as you mention, in supporting us with career growth, being successful at our company and, alas, dealing with issues of people who aren't pulling their weight. In fact, in most company's I'd like to see this resource manager play a much larger part!

However, I think the project manager's role largely shifts to the product OWNER, which makes infinitely more sense to me. The product owner is actually the owner of the product vision and the key to the resources needed to realize that vision and so by shifting the technical responsibility to the team itself and the business responsibilities to the product owner, I think we're just cutting out the middle man - who, let's be honest, was always in a terrible position to begin with.

[Paul]

I'm afraid I couldn't agree less! The role of PM is as important on an Agile project as it is on any other project type, if not more so. Telling people what and how to do something is bad management period, it has nothing to do with Agile or Waterfall. Good managers set the constraints within which a team operates and self-organizing teams need constraints just as much as 'traditional' teams (possibly more so. I've tried to blog about this: http://pauldyson.wordpress.com/2009/05/06/managing-agile-projects/