When we first started our thinking on the role of the Agile Business Coach, Andy and I asked ourselves the question "Lets assume that there is a development team working alongside the business users who are writing stories and assigning priority to them. What value would a business analyst add in that setting." Our thinking lead to the Business Coach Role. Someone who coaches the development team in the business domain and problem, and coaches the business in how to interact with the development team - writing stories and specifying tests.
I sat with a group of project managers and asked a similar question. "If we have a self organising team who allocate work amongst themselves. What value does the project manager add?" I received a lot of criticism for asking the unthinkable question and was labelled a trouble maker. This is because a lot of project managers are uncomfortable with the question and the possible answer. There is a role for project managers but it is not the command and control role that many enjoy today. They add value by creating a gelled team that delivers business value. At ADC last year, the title suggested for a project manager was "A Behavioural Coach". I like this title. They are the person responsible for encouraging positive behaviours and discouraging negative behaviours. The project manager also ensures that the business value is delivered into production and clears the way for the team to get the job done. Certainly not the current role.
If it upsets people when I ask "What value do project managers add?". Perhaps there is a reason for the unease is the same feeling the dinosaurs had.
Posted by chrismatts at June 3, 2004 7:54 PMTalking about self-organizing teams, you might want to keep an eye out for http://selforganizingteams.com during and after next week while the XP2004 conference is going full-speed. The site I referred to belongs to one of the workshops which deals with the topic of (drum roll, please) self-organizing teams.
Posted by: Lasse Koskela at June 3, 2004 9:02 PM> Perhaps there is a reason for the unease is the > same feeling the dinosaurs had.
I think the big fireball coming down from the sky was causing that... :)
On the XP mailing list, I remember someone asking:
If your team had a Customer, Tracker, and Coach, do you still need a Manager?
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What you describe is what I would expect a "Coach" to do. I'd actually expect a Manager to do something different. Something like facilitate/manage the communication/relationship with Project Sponsors and others in the Project Community. As well as resourcing, etc.