Agile and Scrum teams work with
product owners
to define requirements and prioritize backlogs, then have the team/tech leads
that guide them from commitment to done every sprint and release. Many scrum
teams will have
scrum masters
focusing on team cohesion, and some will have
business analysts
aiding the product owner and team/tech lead in
writing user stories.
Things get fuzzy when your product or program requires multiple agile teams,
so I’ve been sharing aspects of
StarCIO’s Agile Planning
to help small, medium, and large organizations adapt continuous planning,
transformation management, and driving digital cultures.
When running multiple teams that must collaborate on releases and business
impacts, I guide organizations on three leadership roles that work across
teams: Product Managers, Program Managers, and Delivery Managers. I’ve covered
product management
and the
role of program managers in agile, so this post will focus on delivery managers.
Winning Teams Require Collaboration Between Product, Delivery, and Program
Managers
Delivery Managers in Agile and Scrum focus on delivering on quality, time, and
standards. They partner with Product Managers who are most responsible for
defining and gaining buy-in on the product/program’s vision, roadmap, and
customer value propositions. Obviously, the struggle to meet the scope and
technical stands in a defined timeframe (i.e., across roadmaps, releases, and
sprints) creates tension, so their success requires a collaborative
partnership.
How product managers and delivery managers collaborate with program managers
depends on the agile program management office’s (PMO) primary
responsibilities. These vary considerably by the organization, but they often
include overseeing strategic requirements, compliance functions, financials,
and reporting.
Delivery Managers Balance Self-Organizing Teams and Delivery Standards
Once multiple teams must work together toward the strategic, product, and
program goals, the bounds of self-organizing teams must be defined and led by
someone accountable for the teams’ successes. That’s the primary role of the
delivery manager. Delivery managers must often address questions like:
- How many teams and who is on what team
- Which standards must be followed and where to get teammates defining them
- How best to improve teams’ estimating practices and velocity
-
What details to cover when timeline, capacity, and other forecasts are
requested -
How to promote hybrid working, learning, diversity, inclusion, fun, and
other cultural practices with the teams
In many ways, delivery managers act as CTOs for their products or programs and
have broad responsibilities around teams, people, processes, and technologies.
They should be bound by org or department standards but also have a voice in
creating them. Standards include architecture, security requirements, DevOps
practices, the SDLC, UX guides, data governance, and other guardrails that
define how agile teams deliver.
There’s more in Episode 41 of 5 Minutes with @NYIke. See below.
Please reach out to me
if you have questions or want to know more about
StarCIO’s Agile Center of Excellence Programs
and our
Driving Digital Workshops.
