Iteration Managers” (IMs) and “Scrum Masters” are quickly gaining in popularity with organisations wanting to “go Agile” – but what does “Iteration Management” actually mean?
From an Agile trainer and coach’s perspective, Iteration Management is an intriguing topic – some organisations have a whole team of IMs while others haven’t heard of the concept or deliberately decided not to use them. So what, if indeed any, benefit does an Iteration Manager bring to an Agile team?
Before going into the “pros” and “cons” of Iteration Management, let’s quickly recap on one of the underlying principles of Agile – the “self-organising team”. A self-organising team takes responsibility for all aspects of delivering business outcomes – from discussing requirements with stakeholders over cutting code and testing to watering their own pot plants. In this nirvana of shared responsibility, accountability and empowerment, who needs a “manager” to tell us what to do, when to do it and how to do it? Exactly –nobody!
So why do we have Iteration Managers then? First off, the “manager” part of the name “Iteration Manager” is somewhat misleading – the IM doesn’t manage the team and doesn’t manage the iteration. In fact, I believe that IMs ideally occupy another role on the team (I have blogged on the rationale behind this in my post on “Finding a good Iteration Manager“) and are NOT experienced people and / or project managers.
Alright, no people and task management then – how about budgets and resources? Again, unless you go for the “PM / IM combo” (surprisingly, I have a view on this too – head over to my post on “PM / IM combos – 2 for the price of 1” if you’re interested) your IM is unlikely to have the necessary skills and experience to effectively manage the project. So no “management” here either.
By now you might wonder what exactly an Iteration Manager DOES do – and since it’s a question I get asked a lot, I thought I’d offer up a few of my own thoughts which are conveniently packaged into the “3-S approach to Iteration Management”:
Other than making a fancy name, for me these three bullet points also describe the needs of a team onto their Iteration Manager as it progresses and develops from an Agile immature team to a self-organising and empowered team:
1. Serve
While an IM doesn’t “manage” the team, there is definitely an element of leadership involved in the role – even without years of “hands on” Agile experience, an IM is a person who is “on board” with Agile values, principles and some of the practices and therefore acts as a role model for his / her peers on the team.
“Be the change you want to be” is a popular proverb often attributed to Ghandhi and I believe it’s highly applicable here – implemented correctly, the IM role can be that of a powerful change agent leading the team to self-organisation by role modelling and acting as a “Servant Leader”. Coined by Robert K Greenleaf, the notion of Servant Leadership has attracted an increased following since the term originated in the 1970s and is a central topic of leadership in Agile environments (to learn more about Greenleaf’s idea and writings about “Servant Leadership”, see https://www.greenleaf.org/what-is-servant-leadership.
In the context of the Iteration Manager’s role, Servant Leadership incorporates the modelling of behaviours necessary to establish a high-performing, self-organising team and to embrace their leadership role from a position of wanting to further others rather than trying to accumulate power or influence for themselves. This means that a good IM should have a desire to use their own knowledge and experience of Agile to enhance the team’s understanding of the associated principles, processes and practices rather than trying to become the “gatekeeper” of all things Agile.
2. Support
The “supporting” function of an Iteration Manager can take many different shapes and forms, however it is NOT closely associated with buying coffees, chocolates or sandwiches! Instead, a good IM needs to focus on areas where his / her peers require help to fulfil their roles and responsibilities to the best of their ability. This can take the form of running short “brown bag” sessions with the team to explore and discuss new Agile practices for implementation or creating the burndown chart for the team every day depending on team needs at any given point in time. However as important it is for the IM to act as a Servant Leader and offer team support, it is as important to understand the difference between “support” and “mothering” – there is very little benefit to either the IM or the team if the “IM does whatever the rest of the team can’t be bothered to do”.
The secret here is balance - a good IM needs to understand when the team will benefit from the support provided (e.g. in interpreting the data available from a burndown or velocity chart and identifying possible improvements) and when to nudge the team back onto the path of self-organisation (e.g. updating the story wall or buying biscuits for the next planning session).
3. Simplify
My final “S” refers to “simplifying the processes involved in fulfilling a shared purpose” or, to use a more common denomination, facilitation. In the past I have found that “the f-word” has been used rather loosely to describe any kind of meeting coordination so it’s important to me to stress that facilitation is a necessary and important activity in any collaborative environment that requires a high degree of skill and personal and professional discipline and while all of these factors can be learnt, these attributes may come more easily to some than they do to others. A good IM is aware of his / her strengths and weaknesses and displays a willingness to work on areas that may need improvement.
In their book “Facilitator’s Guide to Participatory Decision-Making”, Sam Kaner and colleagues describe the role of a facilitator as follows:
“The facilitator’s job is to support everyone to do their best thinking and practice. To do this, the facilitator encourages full participation, promotes mutual understanding and cultivates shared responsibility. By supporting everyone to do their best thinking, a facilitator enables group members to search for inclusive solutions and build sustainable agreements” (Kaner, et. al., 2007)
In addition to self-awareness and personal discipline, a good facilitator also benefits from a range of tools and techniques to facilitate collaborative idea generation and decision making, deal with conflict and have a solid understanding of team development stages to provide adequate team support based on the team’s needs (rather than the facilitator’s skills).
So in a nutshell, I believe that a strong IM puts emphasis on the facilitation of team processes and practices in the best interest of the team and the shared outcome the team is trying to achieve while embracing the notion of the “leader as the servant” and maintaining a measured balance between supporting the team in “doing what they are unable to do” and understanding that this sentence needs to finish in “….yet”. Since in my opinion, the best Iteration Manager is one who believes in the benefits of a truly self-organising team and provides guidance for the team on their path to self-organisation, not one who works to ensure that his / her role will never become obsolete.
If all of this seems a bit daunting – or maybe exciting! – you can learn more about Servant Leadership, team development, conflict resolution and Agile facilitation in our new, 3-day ICAgile accredited Agile Facilitation course. With a good mix of theory and hands-on exercises the course allows experienced Agile practitioners to “take the next step” on their journey to becoming an “Agile Expert” while giving you a whole toolbox full of techniques to successfully support an Agile team from “norming” to “high performing”.
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