I delayed the Blog a week because I though I'd have more value to add after Agile Coach Camp. Last year's ACC was almost overwhelming and because I had no idea what to expect, also made a big difference in my thoughts. This year, the concept of open space wasn't new, confidence in my abilities were relatively high, I was listening to several podcasts and more involved in the agile community than ever, and I didn't expect to be surprised. I was wrong.
I watched a coach write "How much do you make?" with a matching Open Space topic, realized that I no longer suffered from "Impostor Syndrome", and found that the small success at the organization I coached for 18 months might be just a bit bigger than I thought.
So What about the Managers? After all, they're not mentioned in the Scrum Guide. This must mean that implementing Scrum means we don't need them anymore, right? I disagree.
Scrum is a framework, and Kanban is a method. Neither one is a methodology. This distinction is more than just a terminology change. It's an acknowledgement that the organization can keep some of the old stuff, add this new stuff, and get better results. Does this mean everything can stay the same? Not at all. It means that as we add the new stuff, we learn some more, and we can adapt to add even better new stuff as we become the company we want to be.
So that doesn't mean we get rid of the managers. It does mean, however, that we are going to adapt their roles, engage and transform their functions, and maybe even help them discover new roles they can grow in.
I brought my successful experience implementing a "Team of Teams forum" and the Agile Leadership Board that serves it.
Things we addressed in our Team of Teams:
Conflict between management and teams, PMO and teams, .net and PHP teams
Developers and Ops Dev
Development and RM
Development and Infrastructure
IT and Marketing
IT and Product Managers
Dev Managers and PO's
We went a lot deeper at ACC, and here are a few pictures from the event. It was a learning experience for me AND the others at Coach Camp.