Engineering Managers, Directors and VPs in Agile
Most guidance on Agile is directed at team members in
such roles as Product Owner, Team Member (including developer, QA engineer, and
UI/UX designer), and Scrum Master. This leaves some with the impression
that there is no place in Agile for traditional organizational leadership roles
with manager or director titles.
On the contrary, people in manager, director, and VP
roles are essential to the success of an Agile organization. To be effective, they need to practice
discipline, discernment, and discretion
Discipline – through Lean/Agile Governance principles and
practices
IT Governance happens, intentionally or otherwise. Agile leaders should be deliberate in
creating the right degree of formal governance for their organization that will
allow teams to thrive. A recent survey
by Scott Ambler and Associates found that Agile Governance has a significant
effect on creating conditions that allows Agile teams to thrive.
Discernment – by participating in as many team meetings as possible
Scrum Team ceremonies are the place a leader can identify
patterns and practices that are helping or hindering team success. By silently participating and observing team
member interactions in such settings as Daily Standups, Sprint Planning,
Backlog Grooming, and Sprint Reviews, a leader can identify opportunities to
influence individuals and the team as whole.
Throughout team development phases, team members will welcome the
guidance of a coach and mentor whose purpose and intent is to help them achieve
their potential.
Discretion – by resisting the urge to use traditional command-and-control
techniques
Many of us in leadership roles have formed habits that
damage team autonomy and empowerment.
We’re too quick to determine and direct, when instead we could foster
collaboration and healthy convergence among team members.
Engineering leaders often are in their positions as
managers because they were successful as individual contributors and showed
some aptitude for leadership. Not many
have had training and experience that allows them to develop the skills needed
to coach, build and inspire others.
Effective leadership requires that you take deliberate steps to move out
of the individual contributor sphere. Lyssa Adkins illustrates the sphere of
influence for an Agile leader this way:
The
need for effective Agile leaders has never been greater. Recently, there has been a considerable
amount of attention drawn to the failings of at least one prominent Silicon
Valley Unicorn in the area of culture and ethics.
The
failure has been demonstrated at every level in the organization, and is
especially noteworthy because of the explicit participation in toxic and
demeaning behavior exhibited by some in engineering leadership roles. They assumed, and company executives
reinforced the belief, that they needed to encourage and reward aggressive,
individualistic patterns and practices, the very things that are anathema to
effective, productive Agile teams.
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