This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
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SAFe Lean-Agile Leaders are lifelong learners and teachers who help teams build better systems through understanding and exhibiting the Lean-Agile Mindset, SAFe Principles, and systems thinking. Such leaders exhibit the behaviors below.
#1 – Lead the Change
The work of steering an organization toward Lean and Agile behaviors, habits, and results cannot be delegated. Rather, Lean-Agile Leaders exhibit urgency for change, communicate the need for the change, build a plan for successful change, understand and manage the change process, and address problems as they come up. They have knowledge of organizational change management and take a systems view with respect to implementing the transformation.
#2 – Know the Way; Emphasize Lifelong Learning
Create an environment that promotes learning. Encourage team members to build relationships with Customers and Suppliers and expose them to other world views. Strive to learn and understand new developments in Lean, Agile, and contemporary management practices. Create and foster formal and informal groups for learning and improvement. Read voraciously from the recommended reading list and on other topics. Share selected readings with others and sponsor book club events for the most relevant texts.
Allow people to solve their own problems. Help them identify a given problem, understand the root causes, and build solutions that will be embraced by the organization. Support individuals and teams when they make mistakes, otherwise learning is not possible.
#3 – Develop People
Employ a Lean leadership style, one that focuses on developing skills and career paths for team members rather than on being a technical expert or coordinator of tasks. Create a team jointly responsible for success. Learn how to solve problems together in a way that develops people’s capabilities and increases their engagement and commitment. Respect people and culture.
#4 – Inspire and Align with Mission; Minimize Constraints
Provide mission and vision, with minimum specific work requirements. Eliminate demotivating policies and procedures. Build Agile Teams and trains organized around value. Understand the power of self-organizing, self-managing teams. Create a safe environment for learning, growth, and mutual influence. Build an Economic Framework for each Value Stream and teach it to everyone.
#5 – Decentralize Decision-Making
(See “SAFe Principle #9” for further discussion.)
Establish a decison-making framework. Empower others by setting the mission, developing people, and teaching them to problem-solve. Take responsibility for making and communicating strategic decisions—those that are infrequent, long lasting, and have significant economies of scale. Decentralize all other decisions.
#6 – Unlock the Intrinsic Motivation of Knowledge Workers
(See “SAFe Principle #8” for further discussion.)
Understand the role that compensation plays in motivating knowledge workers. Create an environment of mutual influence. Eliminate any and all management by objectives (MBOs) that cause internal competition. Revamp personnel evaluations to support Lean-Agile principles and values. Provide purpose and autonomy; help workers achieve mastery of new and increasing skills.
Role of the Development Manager
As an instantiation of the principles of Lean and Agile development, SAFe emphasizes the values of nearly autonomous, self-organizing, cross-functional teams and Agile Release Trains. This supports a leaner management infrastructure, with more empowered individuals and teams and faster, local decision-making. Traditional, day-to-day employee instruction and activity direction is no longer required.
However, all employees still need someone to assist them with career development; set and manage expectations and compensation; and provide the active coaching they need to advance their technical, functional, individual, and team skills and career goals. They also have a right to serve as an integral member of a high-performing team.
In addition, self-organizing ARTs do not fund themselves or define their own mission. That remains a management responsibility, as it is an element of implementation of strategy.
Much of this responsibility traditionally falls to the traditional role of the development manager, and the adoption of Lean-Agile development does not abrogate their responsibilities. However, in SAFe these responsibilities fall to those who can adapt, thrive, and grow in this new environment.
Responsibilities
The development manager (or engineering manager for system development) is a manager who exhibits the principles and practices of Lean-Agile leadership as described above. Further, the manager has personal responsibility for the coaching and career development of direct reports, takes responsibility for eliminating impediments, and actively evolves the systems in which all knowledge workers operate. They have final accountability for effective value delivery as well. A summary of responsibilities is highlighted below.
Personnel and Team Development
Attract, recruit, and retain capable individuals
Build high-performing teams; establish mission and purpose for individuals and teams
Perform career counseling and personal development
Listen and support teams in problem identification, root cause analysis, and decision-making
Participate in defining and administering compensation, benefits, and promotions
Eliminate impediments and evolve systems and practices in support of Lean-Agile development
Take subtle control in assignment of individuals to teams; address issues that teams cannot unblock; make personnel changes where necessary
Evaluate performance, including team input; provide input, guidance, and corrective actions
Serve as Agile coach and advisor to Agile Teams
Remain close enough to the team to add value and to be a competent manager; stay far enough away to let them problem-solve on their own
Program Execution
Help in building Agile Milestones and Roadmaps, as well as the building plans that enable them
Help develop, implement, and communicate the economic framework
Participate in Inspect and Adapt workshops
Protect teams from distractions and unrelated or unnecessary work
Assist the Release Train and Value Stream Engineers with PI Planning readiness and Pre- and Post-PI Planning activities
Participate in PI planning, System Demo, and Solution Demo
Build partnerships with Suppliers, subcontractors, consultants, partners, and internal and external stakeholders
Provide other resources as necessary for teams and ARTs to successfully execute their Vision and roadmap
Alignment
Work with Release Train and Value Stream Engineers and system stakeholders to help ensure alignment and effective execution of Strategic Themes
Work with the System Architect/Engineer, Product Managers, and Product Owners to establish clear content authority
Continuously assist in aligning teams to the system mission and vision
Help ensure the engagement of Business Owners, Shared Services, and other stakeholders
Transparency
Create an environment where the facts are always friendly
Provide freedom and safety so individuals and teams are free to innovate, experiment, and even fail on occasion
Communicate openly and honestly with all stakeholders
Keep backlogs and information radiators fully visible to all
Value productivity, quality, transparency, and openness over internal politics
Built-in Quality
Understand, teach, or sponsor technical skills development in support of high-quality code, components, systems, and Solutions
Foster Communities of Practice
Understand, support, and apply Agile Architecture
LEARN MORE
[1] Manifesto for Agile Software Development. http://agilemanifesto.org/.
[2] Reinertsen, Donald. The Principles of Product Development Flow: Second Generation Lean Product Development. Celeritas Publishing, 2009.
[3] Rother, Mike. Toyota Kata: Managing People for Improvement, Adaptiveness, and Superior Results. McGraw-Hill, 2009.
[4] Liker, Jeffrey and Gary L. Convis. The Toyota Way to Lean Leadership: Achieving and Sustaining Excellence Through Leadership Development. McGraw-Hill, 2011.