What Does it Mean to be a Manager in Agile?

What Does it Mean to be a Manager in Agile?

A framework I created to explain how managers still have a huge role to play in coaching Agile teams' performance


Will Sansbury
Will Sansbury
What Does it Mean to be a Manager in Agile?

There’s a common misconception that Scrum and Agile practices eliminate the need for leadership. If Scrum teams are self-organizing, then leaders and managers are obsolete, right?

That is only true if you understand leadership to be exclusively about project management—assigning tasks, checking on status, and making sure delivery happens as planned. Those aspects of leadership can and should be self-directed by the Scrum team.

But Scrum teams still need leadership in the form of coaching on a variety of fronts. I created this quick and dirty slide to help different leaders understand their role in coaching Scrum teams. Since I find myself returning to it frequently, I thought I’d share it.

What do you think? Is this a helpful model?

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