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"It was just horrible," a friend told me. "I'd been an accomplished project manager for so long, then one day they just dropped it on me: 'You should use Scrum for this new project. You have five weeks, which should be enough when you use Scrum.'
"Nobody was trained, and I had no clue what to do. Now that the five weeks are over, they arranged for me to move to another division and said, 'we're bringing someone else into this role to do it right'."
Another friend told me: "From my position as the manager above the team leaders, Scrum was problematic. This method left me completely outside the real process of updates, decision making, and the like. It made it much more difficult for me to correct things, and take responsibility in a timely and pleasant manner."
In the move to Agile, people experience different situations and emotions.
Developers, testers and business analysts encounter changes in their roles and practices, but usually adapt well. They need some time to learn, and it's sometimes acceptable to exhibit old habits: be very detailed about a story, write code without tests, or test from a script.
Other people — team leaders, dev managers, product, project and program managers — are often at a loss. Team members frown on their old-style activities, such as detailed planning and task assignment. And from above, their top management makes requests of them, such as status reports, which incur equal derision. Some people spout "Agile doesn't need any managers!"
I'm sad to say, I've heard too many accounts like my friends'. Companies bring in Agile and good people get hurt. They are put in impossible situations or not given the tools they need. Few get time to adjust. Only some get guidance through the turbulence. They feel inadequate and undervalued.
Almost every Agile coach I know has come across at least one CEO/VP who decreed, "as of such and such date, you will all be agile!" without providing adequate support.
I've brought Agile into more than 20 organizations. I know it just doesn't have to be this way!
When I say, "there's definitely room for project managers in Agile", I'm not being nice to people who will be shortly made redundant. I help my clients discover how best to redirect and leverage their managers' aptitudes and competencies.
For instance, in one readiness assessment interview, developers told me: "Our technical project manager, he doesn't just know the book [the PMBOK], he is the book. He'll never change." Indeed, the guy was truly perplexed about his role in Agile and had lots of questions during the training and afterwards. I worked with him closely throughout.
Already two days after the kickoff, he hit his stride as the team's primary impediment remover on all technical matters. He took to checking in on everybody every day to see what was holding them back, and was very busy coordinating activities and resolving issues. For this large project community, spread across six offices and not used to direct communication, he became very helpful.
His developers came to me a week later saying, "we don't know what you did to this guy, but he's turned around 180 degrees. He's actually fun now!"
Mind you, some people just won't feel right in an Agile environment; it truly doesn't suit everyone. In my experience, that's 10-15% of every transitioning project community.
You should make sure, however, that they don't feel shut out because of the transition approach. If the organization chooses to move to Agile and these folks choose not to, that's fine: they are responsible for their actions.
You can avoid casualties in the transition process. Here's how:
- Provide sufficient training, guidance and coaching so everybody can address and resolve their fears. Reading a book or sending someone to a conference won't do it!
- Chart everyone's roles, responsibilities and expected behaviours beyond the obvious slots for team, product owner / customer, and process owner / ScrumMaster.
- Remember: this is likely your biggest organizational change effort in several years, treat it accordingly.
Copyright © 2009, 3P Vantage, Inc. All rights reserved.
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