Initiator: Robert Kinnerfelt
Notetaker: Sarah Urriste
Participants: Alvin Providence, Becky Herman, Prashanth, Jens Ostergaard, Wendy, Ivy, Anjali, Michelle Mitchell
Collaboration Area: Ripen
Discussion:
The problem is management starting as POs and SMs when a company moves to agile
Participant: We’re finding that another problem is PMs and Managers impeding the agile transformation because they have the most to lose
Questions posed: Do we need middle management? Who is defined as middle management?
Robert proposes that there should be Artifact Management and People Management
Artifact Management: Anything you can put on a board and prioritize. The following people should perform artifact management:
- Product Owner
- Project Manager: Manage communication between teams and dependencies
- Program Manager
- Technical Lead
- System Architect
- UX Management
- Requirements Mgmt
- Release Management
- Content Mgmt
- Configuration Mgmt
People Management: Manage the environment so people can grow and become better at their job. The following people should perform people management.
- HR Issues
- Guild Leaders
- Should SMs be considered mgmt? No. SM should not have a “side”
- This person has reportees?
- Should the team self-manage?
Recommendations/Next Steps
How to create sustainability with middle management?
- Training
- Guild Leadership: Developing the craft & the people in that community (Artifact & People)
- Find your own place in a scrum team
- Create/guide the direction people should go
- Support from upper C-level management
- Help reports find their role
- Motivate & Incentivize
- Manage expectations
- Coach: Assist in the decision making, but don’t make the decisions for people
Issue: Middle management can be absent and unaware of what’s happening with their reports
Possible Solution: Implement “Guild Leaders” that pop into standups and meetings, meet with their reports to see how things are going, meet with the POs & SMs to have a holistic understanding of how their reports are doing on the Scrum team
Middle management should manage dependencies between different departments