Agile Roles & responsibilities

Agile Roles & responsibilities

1. Changing Roles in Agile Understand how roles & responsibilities in traditional organization and management change in Agile/Scrum process framework Ravi Tadwalkar Agile Coach, WD; Co-founder, “Cisco Internal Coaches Network”; Event Organizer, AgileCamp.org & SVALN This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution- NonCommercial - ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License .

2. Agenda Agile Roles Major Cultural Shifts in transitioning to Agile Emergent Requirements ( and UX ) Emergent design (and testing) Tracking & Oversight Sample Agile RACI matrix Summary

3. Agile Roles in an Organization

4. Agile Roles Scrum Team Member (dev & test) Scrum Master (SM) Product Owner PO) Customers(s) 3 main roles: Product Owner (PO) Scrum Master (SM) Scrum team member Other pertinent roles: Proxy-PO, User Experience Lead, Architect, Internal Coach/Mentor, Agile Program Manger, Functional Manager, and Agile Product/Portfolio Manager

5. Shift #1: Emergent Requirements What is it? From waterfall-like “Big Requirements Up Front” ( BRUF ) to “emergent requirements” to drive just enough architecture. Major Impacted Areas Marketing: Product /Portfolio Management Usability Possible Agile Roles Product Owner (PO) Proxy-PO User Experience Lead Internal Coach/Mentor

6. Product Owner (PO) Role: Owns the vision and definition of the product. Represents the VoC (voice of the customer). Ensures that the scrum team(s) work on “ right things” from the business perspective. Recommendation: One can break this role down differently based on BU or location The subject matter expert (SME) - the one who knows *what* to build the most- becomes the PO. We recommend that you have your marketing guy to help you on evolving product backlog, with the help of other SMEs Traditional Product Manager works with the PO Caveats: PO needs to avoid waterfall-like BRUF (Big Requirements Up Front) syndrome and get used to doing “emergent requirements” to drive just enough architecture. PO may not scale to cover all scrum teams. If PO is not always available to the team for clarification and for acceptance, then the alternative is to have someone take on the Proxy-PO role. Sometimes Dev Managers / Technical Leaders can take Proxy-PO role in conjunction with PO.

7. Proxy-PO Role: Assists the PO with story writing, even though PO owns prioritizing and validating stories along with acceptance criteria. Recommendation: Proxy-PO is ideally co-resident with distributed scrum team . Proxy-PO is needed due to location & band-width issues of PO, Typically, Director of Product Marketing assigns proxy-PO. Caveats: Watch out for tacit information lost in translation between PO & the Proxy. Not having Proxy-PO may cause back-ending during iteration.

8. PO / Proxy-PO Responsibilities Observable behaviors: *Scrum Activities include Sprint Planning, Daily Standup meeting, Sprint Retrospective meeting and Sprint Review/Demo meeting. Product Owner Behaviors Portfolio Planning Sprint 0 Formal Commit Scrum Activities Scrum of Scrums Engages The Customer Communicates Product Vision Prioritizes and Grooms Backlog Participates On Teams Verbally Clarifies User Stories Accepts User Stories Facilitates Demos Reports Release Status

9. User Experience Lead Role: Owns the vision and definition of the product UX (user experience). Represents the voice of the end user. Ensures the scrum team works on “ right things” from a usability perspective. Recommendation: Often this role is filled by - preferably local - Interaction Designer. Sometimes Visual Designer, Product Manager, or Engineer can serve as Proxy- UE Lead. Caveat(s): Watch out for scenarios where Interaction Designers may not scale to cover all scrum teams. Reason could be waterfall-like BRUF / BDUF symptom of creating “perfect” UX. Try to make them work with PO in evolutionary mode, for incremental delivery.

10. UE Lead Responsibilities Observable behaviors: User Experience Lead Behaviors Portfolio Planning Sprint 0 Formal Commit Scrum Activities Scrum of Scrums Defines User Experience Concept Plans UE -related Deliverables Creates Wireframes, Visual Comps, and Visual Assets As Part Of Preparing User Stories To Be Ready For Implementation. Supports Scrum Team To Deal With Issues And To Answer UI-related Questions Partners With PO To Review/Accept UI-related User Stories Plans And Runs Usability Studies Supports Product Owner In Customer Engagement Activities

11. Internal Coach/Mentor Role: Provide coaching to Scrum Team by observing, consulting and providing feedback for improvement . Recommendation: Typically coaching is performed by very experienced Scrum Masters/ POs who have been trained by other agile coaches in the internal coaching network. Caveat(s): There are well known coaching “traps”- failure modes- via any of these self-explanatory labels: spy, seagull, opinionator , admin, hub, butterfly, theoretician and nag. These failure modes are results of ego or partial attention.

12. Internal Coach/Mentor Responsibilities Observable behaviors:

13. Shift #2: Emergent Design (testing) What is it? Design will emerge as functionality is being delivered incrementally Major Impacted Areas Architecture Development Test Possible Agile Roles Architect Scrum Team Member (Dev & Test) Internal Coach/Mentor (Team Level player-coach)

14. Architect Role: A technical expert who works with the Scrum Team and Product Owner to ensure technical alignment and success of the product . Recommendation The traditional architect/ Technical Lead role usually maps to the architect in agile. Caveat(s): Architect needs to avoid waterfall- ish BDUF (Big Design Up Front) syndrome to get used to doing “emergent design” for just enough architecture. Architects should be present in daily stand ups to understand blockers and post-meeting get into a solutioning mode

15. Architect Responsibilities- Observable behaviors: * Architects may also be Scrum Team Members or Proxy-Product Owners. Architect Behaviors* Portfolio Planning Formal Commit Sprint 0 Scrum Activities Scrum of Scrums Provides Mentoring Support Product Owner, eg. So That Stories Are Implementable Drives Refactoring Provides Clear Architectural Direction Supports Mid- and Long Range Roadmapping Provides Subject Matter Expertise Ensures Strong, Most Appropriate, Development Methods Are Followed Insures Implementation Supports Testability, Scalability, Performance, Security, etc.

16. Scrum Team Member - Role: A dedicated cross-functional team member that may be in a QA, DOC, DEV, or UE job function focused on completing user stories . Recommendation: Engineers in existing team (QA, DOC, DEV, or UE) structure usually map to Scrum team member role. Caveat(s ): For some BUs, cross-functional team formation may not happen, so there are some combinations possible e.g. “marketing + DEV”, where DEV does testing. Some scrum team members are shared across teams, e.g. DBA .

17. Scrum Team Member Responsibilities- Observable behaviors: *Swarming is working in small cross-functional groups to rapidly complete high priority tasks. Scrum Team Member Behaviors Portfolio Planning Sprint 0 Formal Commit Scrum Activities Scrum of Scrums Cross-trains/Mentors Team Members Estimates Tasks Accurately Takes On New Unfamiliar Tasks Decomposes User Stories Into Tasks Swarms* With Other Scrum Team Members Provides Timely Status To The Team Participates Actively In The Team Makes And Meets Commitments

18. Shift #3: Tracking & Oversight What is it ? Tracking work pending vs. % complete Major impacted Areas Program Management Handling Impediments Management by Objectives Possible Agile Roles SM Agile Program Manger Functional Manager Internal Coach/Mentor (Team Level)

19. Scrum Master Role: A servant leadership role that is responsible for enforcing agile values and practices at team level SM ensures that scrum team is fully functional, productive and focused on the goal. Recommendations Anyone - properly trained - can potentially fill this role. For SM role, you need to find a person who knows *how* to build the most- who can also “coordinate” the team to work on what PO specifies. More like an architect/lead that the team looks up to for design decisions/facilitation Caveat(s ): Keep in mind that a Functional Manager in this role may struggle with the shift to servant leadership . SM does not assign tasks and needs to move away from “command & control” SM sets up the team for failure if s /he does not track burn down charts

20. SM Responsibilities Observable behaviors: *Scrum Activities include Sprint Planning, Daily Standup meeting, Sprint Retrospective meeting and Sprint Review/Demo meeting. Scrum Master Behaviors Portfolio Planning Sprint 0 Formal Commit Scrum Activities * Scrum of Scrums Trains Team Members Removes Impediments Runs and Facilitates Scrum Meetings Protects Teams From Distractions Enforces Agile Principles Holds Team Accountable Provides Status Works With Product Owner To Assure Readiness To Sprint

21. Agile Program Manger Role: A member of the Program Management Office (PMO) who works with product owner, scrum masters and others (as identified by the organization) to ensure that: the  program executes according to the overall program plan, the program stays within the committed boundaries (resources, schedule, content, quality) and goals as defined in the commit process Recommendations: Agile Office is different from a traditional PMO and is required for organizational transformation and sustenance. Agile Program Manager leads the creation of Agile Office Caveat(s): It can be challenging to update project plans (Gantt charts) based on team’s burndown data. It’s reasonable to try to attain match between scrum team’s release plan and PMO level program/project plan. Trying to match program plan with sprint plans at the detailed level will not be productive.

22. Agile Program Manager Responsibilities Observable behaviors: * Program Managers indirectly support the Portfolio Planning process, by providing relevant historical, statistical, and capacity tactical data. Agile Program Manager Behaviors Portfolio Planning* Sprint 0 Formal Commit Scrum Activities Scrum of Scrums Drives The Commit Preparation Activities Facilitates The Scrum Of Scrums Facilitates Escalation and Removal Of Impediments Monitors Program Progress Monitors Compliance With Corporate and ISO Requirements Facilitates Agile Commit (aka “hybrid scrum” stage gate) Facilitates Creation Of The Program Plan Facilitates Communication With Dependent Groups Manages External Dependencies

23. Agile Functional Manager Role: Support Scrum Team members to learn, grow and perform, while maintaining departmental responsibility and accountability for achieving business results. Recommendation: Usually Dev & Test Managers fit in this role. Technical directors may also be good fit. Caveat(s): Watch out for the drift back to old command-and-control behaviors by manager assigning tasks to team rather than team choosing it. Avoid confusing people management with project management – the former is done by the functional manager- and NOT latter.

24. Agile Functional Manager: CAVEATS / Don’ts Interesting Readings: Pete Deemer’s Manager 2.0 : The Role of the Manager in Scrum Jurgen Appelo’s Management 3.0 workouts Now You See It: A Peer Feedback System for Scrum Teams Behaviors that conflict with Agile/Scrum: Decide what work needs to be done Make commitments to management on behalf of the team A bout how much can team do by a certain date Assign the work to Team members Do weekly status update report for management Keep track of what everyone on the team is doing Make sure the Team gets their work done

25. Agile Functional Manager Responsibilities Observable behaviors: * Agile Functional Managers may have other roles that add additional behaviors that need to be taken into account during calibration. Agile Functional Manager Behaviors* Portfolio Planning Sprint 0 Formal Commit Scrum Activities Scrum of Scrums Provides Mentoring, “T-shaped” Skills Development, & Career Guidance Removes Impediments Protects Teams From Distractions Recruits and Hires New Team Members Evaluates Performance Of Team Members- using 360 feedback and/or calibration, etc… Recognizes and Rewards Teams and Individuals Provides Subject Matter Expertise Holds Teams and Individuals Accountable For Their Own Commitments Creates An Environment Of Trust

26. Changing Role of Manager in Agile/Scrum Core Responsibilities   Transition Stage Additional Responsibilities Creates an environment of trust Removes Impediments Protects Teams From Distractions Retains people management responsibilities Recognizes and Rewards agile behavior in teams and individuals Holds teams and individuals accountable for their own commitments Agile Newbie Have & set reasonable expectations about transition, i.e. team may stumble in initial phase . Budget time, resources for team needs e.g. Agile training, infrastructure . Agile Practitioner     Introduce Slack to improve effectiveness over efficiency May participate in or sponsor Agile transition planning and execution Agile Innovator Support innovation by mentoring & coaching Foster organizational improvement Manage Agile Portfolio (w/ Release Planning) Incorporate lean principles in management Become member of corporate agile-lean community of practice  

27. Sample Agile RACI matrix* * This is only an example. Modify based on your org structure and needs!

28. Summary: Cultural Shifts in Agile Emergent Requirements ( and UX ) Emergent design (and testing) Tracking & Oversight

29. Summary: Role of Agile Manager in Scrum Core Responsibilities   Transition Stage Additional Responsibilities Creates an environment of trust Removes Impediments Protects Teams From Distractions Retains people management responsibilities Recognizes and Rewards agile behavior in teams and individuals Holds teams and individuals accountable for their own commitments Agile Newbie Have & set reasonable expectations about transition, i.e. team may stumble in initial phase . Budget time, resources for team needs e.g. Agile training, infrastructure . Agile Practitioner     Introduce Slack to improve effectiveness over efficiency May participate in or sponsor Agile transition planning and execution Agile Innovator Support innovation Fosteri organizational improvement Agile Portfolio Management Incorporate lean principles in management Effective coaches of Agile & lean principles Become member of corporate agile-lean community of practice   CAVEATS / Don’ts: Behaviors that conflict with Agile/Scrum: Decide what work needs to be done Making commitments to upper management for the team A bout how much Team can do by a certain date Assign the work to Team members Watch out for the drift back to old command-and-control behaviors by manager assigning tasks to team rather than team choosing it . Do weekly status update report for management Keep track of what everyone on the Team is doing Make sure the Team gets their work done   Interesting Readings: Pete Deemer’s Manager 2.0 : The Role of the Manager in Scrum Jurgen Appelo’s Management 3.0 workouts Now You See It: A Peer Feedback System for Scrum Teams