Changing Software Development: Learning to Become Agile

4.6. The Role of Leaders

Most software projects have multiple leaders, who may include:

• Product managers or business analysts, who lead the understanding of the application domain and what's required of the software.

• Technical architects and designers, who lead thinking in the solution domain to create the software.

• Project planners and project managers, who control the schedule and reporting to other managers.

In a proactive, motivated team, there's little need of a central manager to tell people what to do. People know what to do and set about doing it without being told to. In such a team, people are specialists and lead in their own field. Team members respect and support specialists who lead in one field but not in others. This leaves traditional manager and team leaders with a question:

What's left for management and leaders to do?

In a learning environment, the leader's role is no longer one of 'command and control', in which they ensure that everyone is doing what they are 'supposed' to do. Nor is their role to ensure on-time delivery. There may be technical authorities, but they are there to inform the decision-making of the whole team.

In a learning environment, the leader's role is one of enabler and learning director. The leader needs to ensure that the team works together and that there are no artificial obstacles placed in the way. Leaders may use their legitimacy and authority to obtain resources for the team, or they may use authority to protect the team, but they ...