By Lyssa Adkins and Michael Spayd
What role does management play in the agile world of self-organizing teams? What is the function of managers in this new world? What does an agile organization need from its management team? Where should the agile manager focus their efforts for greatest benefit?
In a general sense, an agile manager is responsible for the “gray area” surrounding agile teams and throughout the organization.
This gray area can be divided into three large categories: managing teams, managing investments, and managing the organization’s environment. Within these three categories, eight clear competencies have emerged from our research and experience with fully engaged agile managers. These competencies can be mapped to the categories as follows: (Note: the meta-competency, organizational change, applies to all three categories and is listed and discussed separately.)
