Middle Management in an Agile World webcast

Twitter: @mark_lines
How Does Middle Management
Fit In An Agile Organization?
Based on 1-day workshop
DA106: Disciplined Agile for Managers

Mark Lines
2
• President, Disciplined Agile Consortium
• Managing Partner, Scott Ambler + Associates
• Co-creator of the Disciplined Agile Delivery
(DAD) framework
• Enterprise Transformation Coach
• mark [at] scottambler.com
• @Mark_Lines
• Helping to create Agile and Lean enterprises
around the world
© Disciplined Agile Consortium

Let’s explore
some important questions….
What important trends are happening?
Where do managers fit into agile?
So what do I actually do?
How can I do it effectively and add value?
How do I assess Teams and Team Members?
How can I get on board and be part of the solution?
What are some interesting ideas other companies are trying in HR?
© Disciplined Agile Consortium 3

http://www.disciplinedagiledelivery.com/
agility-at-scale/people-management/
4
Disciplined Agile 2.x
People Management process blade
”People Operations”?

Important
Trends

Trend #1: Traditional 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

Trend #5: Companies are Abandoning Annual
Performance Reviews
• Accenture, Deloitte, Cigna, GE, Adobe, Netflix
• 10% of Fortune 500 have eliminated performance appraisals
• Time spent huge source of waste and stress
• Demoralizing to employees
• Feedback loop too infrequent
• MBO seen as ineffective, goals can change
• Not Agile!
• Moving towards continuous feedback
• Teams self-assess and improve themselves

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
èContinuous feedback
5. Continuous performance feedback
èLess work doing annual performance reviews
For more info: “Where do all the managers go?” https://www.disciplinedagileconsortium.org/webinars

The Reality: There Are Fewer
Management Positions in Agile Orgs
Before Agile
After Agile
12

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

Where do managers fit
into agile?

Agile Managers
• From Managing, to Leadership and Support
• Key Themes of the new Agile World for Managers
– Nurturing Teams (Principle #5)
– Expect High Performance Teams
– Heat Shield from organizational chaos
– Building “Systems for Happiness”
– Radical transparency
– Self development and mastery (Shu Ha Ri)
– Need to learn Disciplined Agile enterprise & team strategies
– Importance of fun and winning
– Metrics design
– Outcomes over Output
– Teams are self-managing and keep each other honest & accountable

Rights of an Functional Manager
• To expect his/her teams to pursue excellence in terms of producing
high quality work as efficiently as possible
• To expect the team to work together to address team issues before
escalating outside the team
• To be welcomed in most Team Meetings as an observer in the
interested of transparency
• To be treated with respect

Responsibilities of an Functional Manager
• Provision of a suitable environment to work in
• Creation of an environment of safety
• Reinforce agile principles and mindset
• Encourage experimentation and accept failures
• Protect the team from unnecessary external interruptions (heat
shield)
• Address organizational impediments to the team
• Support individual and team learning opportunities
• Individual and team coaching
• Champion change, reinforce agile principles
• Conflict resolution if required
• Assist with resourcing as required
• Removal of administration burdens

Functional Managers Enable High Performance Teams
Agile Manifesto Principle:
“Build projects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment
and support they need, and trust them to get the job done.”
It is the team’s responsibility to pursue
excellence and become a “High
performance team”
It is the Functional Manager’s
responsibility to help create and
maintain an ideal environment and
support the team’s pursuit of this goal

Motivating Teams
• You can’t mandate motivation, BUT you can create an environment
where they are more likely to be motivated and happy
• Take money off the table
• Provide opportunities for:
– Autonomy
– Mastery
– Purpose
“Build projects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and
support they need, and trust them to get the job done.” – Agile Manifesto

The Joy of Work
• Increase the joy and
accomplishment people feel in
their work

Manage for Happiness
• Complex Adaptive Systems
– network collaboration over hierarchies
• Manage the system, not the people
• Consider gamification
– Personal Mindmaps
– Kudo Cards
– Delegation Poker
– Moving Motivators
– Serious Lego

A Story about Happiness
Happy teams will be resilient

Creating the Environment
support they need, and trust them to get the job done.” – Agile Manifesto
From... To...
Menlo Innovations

Workspace Design
• Collocate where possible
• Supplement with virtual tooling to
simulate collocation
• Design collaborative workspaces
• Reduce the need for meeting rooms

Organizational Design Considerations

Organizational Design
• From matrix style staffing of
projects to long-term stable teams
aligned by value stream
http://www.disciplinedagiledelivery.com/people/

Team Design
• Seek “Whole Teams”
– Reduce dependencies
outside the team
– Increasing team size may
justify full-time specialists
on a team
• Favor Feature over
Component teams
– Consider embedding
legacy/service team
members into teams
• Create stable teams
– initial team design will likely
be flawed. Treat as an
experiment, learn and
adapt
http://www.disciplinedagiledelivery.com/form-initial-team/

Traditional Structure with Managers of Disciplines
Manager
Development
Developer
Developer
Developer
Developer
Developer
Developer
Manager
Testing
Tester
Tester
Tester
Tester
Tester
Tester
Manager
Business Analysis
Business
Analyst
Business
Analyst
Business
Analyst
Business
Analyst
Business
Analyst
Business
Analyst
Manager
PMO
Project
Manager
Project
Manager
Project
Manager
Project
Manager
Project
Manager
Developer

Modern Approach:
Managers of Cross Functional Teams (Functional Managers)
Functional Manager
- Equities Teams 1
Team Member
Team Lead
Team Member
Architecture
Owner
Team Member
Team Member
Functional Manager
- Equities Teams 2
Team Lead
Team Member
Architecture
Owner
Team Member
Team Member
Team Member
Functional Manager
- Fixed Income
Teams 1
Team Member
Team Member
Architecture
Owner
Team Member
Team Member
Team Lead
Functional Manager
- Fixed Income
Teams 2
Architecture
Owner
Team Lead
Team Member
Team Member
Team Member
Team Member
Leopard Team Jaguar Team Maserati Team Porsche Team

But really, we can get by with a wider span of management
Functional Manager
- Equities Teams
Team Member
Team Member
Team Member
Team Member
Team Lead
Architecture
Owner
Leopard Team
Team Member
Team Member
Team Member
Jaguar Team
Team Lead
Architecture
Owner
Functional Manager
- Fixed Income
Teams
Team Member
Team Member
Team Member
Team Member
Team Lead
Architecture
Owner
Maserati Team
Team Member
Team Member
Team Member
Porsche Team
Team Lead
Architecture
Owner

Supporting the Team
“Build projects around motivated
individuals. Give them the environment
and support they need, and trust them to
get the job done.” – Agile Manifesto

Succeed Early over Fail Fast
• Managers should
– encourage experimentation
– allow failure
– expect learnings from mistakes
• Teams that are punished for process experiments that fail will stop
trying new things
– foster a “safe” environment
• Novice agile teams can succeed earlier, and fail less by
– Learning Disciplined Agile strategies
– referencing the DA framework for ideas
– Validate their learning through certification testing
• www.disciplinedagileconsortium.org
• Coaching accelerates learning and increases chance of early
success

Self-organized
Learning through
Communities of
Practice/Guilds
• Learning from peers over
learning from management
communities-of-practice/

Self-organized learning over Top-down Career Development
Functional Manager
- Equities Teams
Team Member
Team Member
Team Member
Team Member
Team Lead
Architecture
Owner
Leopard Team
Team Member
Team Member
Team Member
Jaguar Team
Team Lead
Architecture
Owner
Functional Manager
- Fixed Income
Teams
Team Member
Team Member
Team Member
Team Member
Team Lead
Architecture
Owner
Maserati Team
Team Member
Team Member
Team Member
Porsche Team
Team Lead
Architecture
Owner
Testing
Guild
Encourage “Self-organizing Governance”

Career Progression Implications (1 of 2)
• Traditional organizations often have too many job titles/profiles
• Bureaucratic
• Encourages silo mentality
• Discourages learning and working outside specialty
• Functional Analysts
• Business Analysts
• Systems Analysts
• Solutions Analyst
• Business Analyst I
• Business Analyst II
• Business Analyst III
• Business Analyst IV
• Business Analyst V
20 Job Profiles for Analysts
Do same for Developers, Testers, Architects = 80 Job Profiles!

Career Progression Implications (2 of 2)
• Modern practice is to reduce specialties and levels,
and flatten hierarchies
• Idea: Create profiles for generalizing specialists
• Developer Specialist
– Level 1
– Level 2
– Level 3
• Testing Specialist
– Level 1
– Level 2
– Level 3
• Analyst Specialist
– Level 1
– Level 2
– Level 3
You will still have specialists, just
not so many!
eg) DBAs, SMEs
• Minimizes bureaucracy
• Encourages learning outside
specialties
Ratings of individuals should include
skills outside their specialty!

Agile Roles are NOT Job Titles!
Team Lead Architecture
Owner
Product Owner
38
- No formal tie to compensation, reporting structure, job titles

Trust them to Get the Job Done
support they need, and trust them to get the job done.” - Agile Manifesto

Getting On Board
“Management must enthusiastically champion the change,
not merely tolerate it.”
- Jon Smart, Barclays UK

“Management by Walking Around”
• “Go to the Gemba”
• Technique “can” be effective
• Don’t be disruptive
• Be sensitive to deadlines
• Do not add to their stress
level
• Things to Observe
– Levels of collaboration
– Body language
– Morale (laughter metric)
• “Anything I can do to help?”

The Danger of a Functional Manager as Coach
• If a reporting relationship exists, coaching can become confused
with a directive
• Need to be self-aware and initially over compensate
• Light-touch coaching

Assessing Team Performance
• Team performance over individual
• Outcomes over output
• Self-organizing within appropriate
governance

Performance Management
• Team assessment over individual assessments
– Individuals need to grow, but not at the expense of
teamwork
– Stack ranking being abandoned
• Reward effective teams
– collaborative behavior
– meeting commitments
– “leave no Team Member behind”
• Transparency of everything means individual
assessment becomes easier
– Teamwork, getting stuff done become visible to all
– Are Team Members willing to pair and share

Things to Observe
• Collaborative teamwork
– effective standups
– daily collaboration
• Visual radiators
– Iteration and Release Burndowns/Burnups
– Risks
• Working the Task Board throughout the day
• Preference towards conversations over e-mail
• Actively minimizing of waste
• For Lean teams: Flow of work, minimizing WIP, adhering to constraints
• For Agile/Scrum teams: Meeting commitments
• Effective meetings (lookahead, planning, etc)
• Iteration Reviews/Governance
– Are stakeholders engaged, asking questions, happy?
– Release Plan, Milestone reviews taking place, Risks being reviewed?

Team Metrics – Examples
Business Goal Metric
Frequent Delivery of Value Cycle Time
Quality Escaped Defects
Dependability/Customer Satisfaction Planned to Done Ratio
High Performance Teams Team Morale/Happiness
You should understand metrics like these.
Are they trending positive?

How and When to Engage with Business
• Managers should not interfere with Teams interaction with the
Stakeholders but there are ways they can help
– Looking at upcoming work stream to potentially address skills and
capacity issues in the teams in a timely manner (look-ahead capacity
planning)
– Understand business satisfaction with Teams’ throughput, quality,
dependability
– Act as “heat shield” if the business has concerns
Delivery Teams
Functional Manager
Product Owner

Do you have Working Groups or real Teams?
• Team members collaborate
continuously throughout the day
• Esprit de corps
• Enjoy constructive disagreements
• Team members trust each other
• Dedicated to meeting commitments
• Team members share
• No hidden work
• Good teams feel safe
– can make mistakes without fear
• Team members care for each other)

Interesting HR Ideas other Companies are Trying
• Intrinsic vs Extrinsic Rewards
• Compensation
– Transparency
– Equitable compensation
– Merit Money bonus systems (Appelo)
– Team over individual incentives
• Unlimited Vacation
• No annual performance reviews
• Working remotely

Parting Advice...
• Don’t be a seagull
• Encourage problem solving by teams
• Consider where you yourself are on the Shu
Ha Ri continuum before jumping to
conclusions and “solving” problems
• Accept mentoring from your Team Coaches
• Aggressively pursue self-education
• Lead by example
• Support your Team Coaches
• DA Certification of your teams will make
your life easier – better choices lead to
better outcomes
A Message to Teams – Show Empathy for your Managers
“They are people too. They are just stuck in the system.”
– Jim Benson

How to Learn More
• Disciplined Agile Consortium 1-day workshop
– “DA106: Disciplined Agile for Managers”
• This workshop focuses on how to to be effective as a people (or functional) manager
in an agile world. The content covers agile leadership approaches from Disciplined
Agile, Management 3.0, Daniel Pink, Lyssa Adkins, Menlo Innovations, and
others. Many exercises and agile games are built into the workshop.
• The workshop takes a deep dive into Disciplined Agile's People Management process
blade to understand the various strategies available to you and which ones to adopt
based on your organization and teams' context.
• www.disciplinedagileconsortium.org/DA106
• Find an instructor near you:
– www.disciplinedagileconsortium.org/instructors

Thank You!
mark [at] scottambler.com
@mark_lines
DisciplinedAgileConsortium.org
DisciplinedAgileDelivery.com
ScottAmbler.com
Disciplined Agile Delivery

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

Middle Management in an Agile World webcast

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