The Evolving Role of Managers in Lean-Agile Development

Note: This article is part of Extended SAFe Guidance and represents official SAFe content that cannot be accessed directly from the Big Picture.

概要

One of the most significant challenges and opportunities in adopting SAFe is the evolution of the role of traditional managers. SAFe emphasizes the value of nearly autonomous, self-organizing, cross-functional teams and trains. In addition to the general empowerment provided by Principle #9 –Decentralized decision-making, the SAFe Agile Team roles highlight how responsibilities once assumed by managers are now delegated to the teams. These include:

The Product Owner, who manages the backlog
A Scrum Master who facilitates the team’s progress toward the goal
The team members who are ultimately responsible for implementing and releasing value

For many reasons, Agile seems to work best when a manager does not assume either the Product Owner or Scrum Master role.

This supports a leaner management infrastructure, with more empowered individuals and teams and faster, local decision-making. Productivity and quality go up employee engagement increases, and time-to-market decreases.

However, this challenges the responsibilities of traditional line managers (such as development/engineering manager, hardware/software manager, QA/test manager, and so on), especially as these roles historically have been organized by discipline. As the organization evolves to cross-functional teams and Agile Release Trains (ARTs), individual, daily employee instruction and direction are no longer required. This raises the question – what will these managers do with all that time?

What’s a Manager to Do?

As described in the Business Agility article, SAFe represents one part of a dual operating system that balances the stability and efficiency of the traditional organizational hierarchy with the innovative agility of the network structure found in startup-up companies. Managers in a SAFe enterprise often remain in their positions in the hierarchy even though many of their direct reports may perform their daily work as part of the network structure – Agile teams on Agile Release Trains. This can provide a more optimal situation for managers and the people they supervise. First, all employees still need someone to assist them with career development. A manager must still set and manage expectations and compensation and provide the active coaching required to advance individual skills and career goals. In other words, managers are ultimately responsible for growing their people’s skills and capabilities, as described in Lean-Agile Leadership. While this is a traditional and continued responsibility, in a SAFe environment, the approach is quite different, as is described in the Agile HR article.

Second, this change benefits managers as well. Managers often express the frustrations of wearing too many hats. In addition to their career guidance duties, managers in traditional settings must define the work, prioritize and evaluate work, and so on. Since most of those duties are shifted to other roles and the teams in SAFe, managers can focus more on hiring and developing the best talent for teams and trains. They can look at factors such as planned changes in strategy or new emerging technologies and plan for the training and pairing activities needed to upskill the workforce. They can spend more time on individual coaching and mentoring. They can acquire and exhibit the new skills detailed in the Lean-Agile leadership article, which describes how managers in SAFe evolve to become lean-thinking manager-teachers. This way, they illustrate Lean-Agile leadership’s values, mindset, and principles. In the Lean enterprise, that’s the prerequisite for success. All of these responsibilities are still critically important in a SAFe organization. The good news is that managers should have more time for these value-added activities post-implementation.

In addition to the roles above, the following new responsibilities and opportunities arise:

Lead the Change – As noted in the Lean-Agile leadership article and more thoroughly in the SAFe Implementation Roadmap series, the move to SAFe and Lean-Agile development is a significant organizational change. Many managers will participate in implementing it (as part of the ‘sufficiently powerful coalition for change’) by demonstrating their Lean leadership skills and their adaptability to the new way of working. Some may also assume the role of a SAFe Practice Consultant (SPC), receiving the training and the resources they need to train and coach others to achieve the change.
Manage up and across the enterprise – The move to Agile teams gives the manager the time needed to eliminate impediments and relentlessly improve operations and flow in previously impossible ways. Additionally, their sphere of influence may increase. A manager may become responsible for multiple teams; that combination of teams may now include all the cross-functional skills necessary to deliver end-to-end value.
Coaching newly formed Agile teams – Everyone knows that creating Agile Teams is one thing; having them be effective is another matter. In other words, leading and coaching is a significant job that’s best done by newly trained, lean-thinking manager-teachers. While the level of abstraction is higher—teams rather than individuals—it can still be labor-intensive, especially in the beginning.
Build teams and define the mission and vision – Teams and ARTs may be largely self-organizing and self-managing, but they do not fund themselves or define their missions. That strategy and responsibility lie with management. In addition to helping to form the system, managers play a role in recruiting talent, determining the mission and vision for teams, and helping them achieve their highest potential.

Adopting Lean-Agile development does not eliminate the need for sound management. However, these responsibilities now rest with those Lean-Agile leaders who can adapt, thrive, and grow in this new environment.

Summary of Responsibilities

As we described above, lean-thinking manager-teachers still have a lot of work to do in this new environment. A more detailed review of their responsibilities is highlighted below.

Personnel and Team Development

As we noted, teams don’t form or hire themselves. Recruiting and retaining talent, and fostering high-performing teams, is a big job that includes:

Attracting, developing, and retaining capable individuals
Establishing the mission and purpose for individuals and teams
Performing career counseling and personal development
Listening to and supporting teams for problem identification, root cause analysis, and decision-making
Defining and administering compensation, benefits, and promotions
Eliminating impediments and evolving systems and practices to support Lean-Agile development
Supporting the self-organization that leads to team formation, addressing issues that teams cannot unblock, and making personnel changes where necessary
Evaluating performance, including team input; providing input, guidance, and corrective actions
Serving as an Agile coach and advisor to Agile Teams. Remaining close enough to the team to add value and be a competent manager while staying far enough away to let them solve independently.

Supporting and Reinforcing SAFe Core values

SAFe’s four Core Values—alignment, transparency, respect for people, and relentless improvement—provide the value system of the SAFe enterprise. As shown below, this bestows significant operational responsibilities in reinforcing these values on Lean-thinking manager-teachers.

Responsibilities in Alignment

Work with Lean Portfolio Management (LPM) to establish and monitor Lean Budgets and implement Lean Governance.
Work with Release Train and Solution Train Engineers and stakeholders to help ensure alignment and execution of Strategic Themes.
Work with the System Architect, Product Managers, and Product Owners to establish explicit content authority.
Continuously assist in aligning teams to the system’s mission and vision
Help ensure the engagement of Business Owners, Shared Services, and other stakeholders

Responsibilities in Transparency

Create an environment where the facts are always friendly
Provide freedom and safety so that individuals and teams can innovate, experiment, and occasionally fail
Communicate openly and honestly with all stakeholders
Keep Work in Process (WIP) backlogs and information radiators fully visible to all
Value productivity, quality, transparency, and openness over internal politics

Responsibilities in Respect for People

Treat people with authentic trust and respect
Value a diversity of opinions and viewpoints
Have genuine care for the growth and development of others
Provide coaching, mentoring, training, and other learning experiences
Respect customers, partners, and suppliers

Responsibilities in Relentless Improvement

Provide priority, visibility, and resources for improvement efforts
Promote a culture of continuous problem-solving
Encourage regular retrospectives and Inspect and Adapt (I&A) events
Protect time and space for innovation

まとめ

In this article, we’ve seen how the manager’s role must evolve in the context of the Lean enterprise. The move from the traditional, functional manager—responsible for the daily activities of direct reports—to that of a lean-thinking manager-teacher is not trivial. Experience has shown that not everyone can make that journey. However, those who do will be rewarded with a more personally fulfilling and, indeed, more expansive role. Experience has also shown that these emerging Lean leaders are on their way to additional and more senior responsibilities. These individuals will become the executive leaders of the emerging Lean enterprise.

Last update: 23 February 2023