The Managers Role in Scrum

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The Managers Role in Scrum

• Scrum GatheringNov 14, 2007

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• ltintrogt

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Who am I?
Henrik Kniberg - Crisp AB Java agile software
development CTO of Goyada (mobile services
ecommerce) 30 developers CTO of Epicent (mobile
services) 4 developers CTO of Tain (gaming) 40
developers ... and 2 kids to manage...
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Why is the managers role important?
Sample organization

• The middle manager can be...
• the best catalyst
• the worst impediment
• If he doesnt understand his role within Scrum...
  
• which type do you think he will become?

CEO
Productmanager
Development manager
Operations manager
So what IS my role then?
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What is a manager? (according to various sources
on the Internet)
Resources people, money, things
Someone who controls resources and expenditures
Management The art, or science, of achieving
goals through people
LeadershipThe ability to affect human behavior
so as to accomplish a mission designated by the
leader
Supervision Literally - looking over.Making
sure people do what they are supposed to do
... and what do they actually do?
Management has to do with power by position,
whereas leadership involves power by influence
Organize
Plan
Mentor
Coordinate
Control
Improve
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A sample Scrum company
ScrUML (inofficial Scrum Modeling Language)
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Lets grow it a bit...
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And lets grow it a bit more...
Ugh.Handover to QA.
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And lets improve it.
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• lt/introgt

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The managers role in Scrum

• Some ideas on what a manager should be doing in
  a Scrum company
• Based on
• Personal experience
• 8 years as middle-manager at 3 agile companies
• 1 year as agile coach helping many other managers
• Books forums
• Discussions with peers
• Feedback from Scrum veterans
• Mike Cohn, Ken Schwaber, Jeff Sutherland

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Change agent / bootstrapper / organization builder
The manager could be...
If its nobody else... Its YOU!
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Role placeholder
The manager could be...
If its nobody else... Its YOU!
What isnt getting done around here?
Buy snacks
Synchronize multiple product backlogs
Handle resource conflicts
Solve high-level impediments
Strategic release planning
OK, Ill do it for now!
Salary negotiation
Find strategic partners
Recruitment
Clean the office
Does this really need to be done at all? Am I the
right person? Who should be doing it?
Synchronize multiple teams
Coach the scrum masters
Tech evangelist
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Chief Product Owner
The manager could be...
If its nobody else... Its YOU!
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Resource broker
The manager could be...
If its nobody else... Its YOU!
CTO / Dev Mgr
Development department
Scrum Team A
SM
Product A
Scrum Team B1
SM
Scrum Team B2
Product B
SM
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Coordinator / Bridge builder
The manager could be...
If its nobody else... Its YOU!
CTO / Dev Mgr
Development department
Scrum of Scrums
CM group
DB group
Test group
Scrum Team A
SM
Product A
Scrum Team B1
SM
Scrum Team B2
Product B
SM
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Oil / firefighter / process coach
The manager could be...
If its nobody else... Its YOU!
Team isnt listening to me!
Product owners priorities are wrong!
The releases arent working!
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Waste constraint hunter
The manager could be...
If its nobody else... Its YOU!
Goal
Problem
Solution
3. Fix next
1. Slow down
2. Fix bottleneck
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Gardener / motivator
The manager could be...
If its nobody else... Its YOU!
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Kaizen fuel / impediment fixer / servant leader
The manager could be...
If its nobody else... Its YOU!
CEO
Fix
Escalate
Productmanager
Development manager
Operations manager
Fix
Escalate
Escalate
Fix
Fix
Fix
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Protector
The manager could be...
If its nobody else... Its YOU!
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The Bottom Line

• You, the manager, are critically important.
• Thats a problem.
• Try to make yourself redundant.
• Youll probably never get there.
• But each step is an improvement.

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Extra slides...
(brought up during the QA session)
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Technical debt

• Definition of Done
• .... bla bla ....
• No increased technical debt

• Code duplication
• Test coverage
• Code readability

Vmax
Vmax
Vactual
Vactual
Sustainable pace!
velocity
velocity
time
time
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Velocity calibration
Estimated Velocity
Actual Velocity
Estimated
Actual
40
30
40
30
30
40
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30
30
40
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30
30
30
Estimated
Actual
Estimated
Actual
40
30
40
30
35
50
35
30
25
30
60
20
30
30
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