The core strength of Scrum is its ability to take advantage of self-managing teams who are capable of making faster decisions, taking ownership and creating value by helping the customers to respond to ever changing needs of their domain and market.
The challenge however is, how many self-managing teams have we truly encountered in the software world? At least in the places where I have worked in the past, the sighting was rare to none. It is like going on a birding trip to find a specific bird species only to know that the species has already migrated to some other place. It was here yesterday but now it is gone.
The question this situation raises is, if self-management is so important for Scrum or Agility to thrive, then why do we have so few self managing teams? And by simply declaring a team self-managing, does that magically make it so?
Autonomy and Alignment
In one of his videos Henrik Kniberg highlights an important point. He establishes that autonomy or self-management can not happen on its own. Oftentimes alignment and autonomy are considered to be two different extremes on the same axis. However, that’s not how it should be considered. They are two different dimensions, less of one and more of other is just going to be a recipe of failure.
Too much self-management equating to complete freedom is going to lead to chaos as everyone deals with stuff their own way. On the other hand if there is too much direction then people lose engagement and creativity.
Image concept: Henrik Kniberg
As I was learning the ropes of Scrum and agility, one of my coaches used to say - self-management doesn’t happen without boundaries. Self-management does not mean that there are no constraints. Self-management is about creating the right set of boundaries and empowering the people to make decisions within those boundaries. Like in the game of cricket there are certain boundaries created by the rules and guidelines of the game, within which individual players can evolve their own style; can make certain decisions that would propel the team towards winning the game.
An alignment needs to be created if we need the teams to become self-managing and autonomous. To create the alignment, a shared understanding about the objectives, rules, guidelines, processes, methods and tools need to be crafted.
Creating the Boundaries for Self-Management
For self-management to occur, the right set of boundaries needs to be established. The boundaries often help to set up expectations, define ownership and responsibilities and create constraints within which the teams can make effective decisions. The boundaries provide clarity and focus.
Many different artifacts and complementary practices can create boundaries to enable effective self-managing teams:
- Product Vision, Product Goal and Sprint Goal: The vision and goals of the product help establish focus and set a clear direction for the Scrum Team to follow. When the whole team is aligned to common Product Vision, they show better commitment and collective ownership. Without a clear vision, teams can easily get lost in the details and lose sight of the bigger picture.
- Definition of Done: The only purpose of Scrum or a Sprint is to create a DONE Increment. Having a clear and shared understanding of the DONENESS criteria enables quality. This allows the Product Owner to have confidence to delegate the release decisions to the Scrum team to improve time to market; to multiple releases within a sprint and deliver value early and often.It removes any ambiguity about the quality of work accomplished.
- Decision-Making Authority: Empowering the Scrum Team to take ownership of the work they are doing is important. This can be achieved if boundaries around decision making authority are established. Clearly stating what decisions Scrum Team can make while which they need to take input from stakeholder or which needs to be escalated, probably to people outside of Scrum team is important. This avoids confusion and helps in creating a streamlined decision making framework.
- Team Working Agreements: Team working agreements are a great way to establish boundaries for team interactions within and outside of the team. These help the team to easily overcome their conflicts, establish ownership and responsibilities. These also foster a culture of collaboration and mutual respect.
- Organizational Constraints: Scrum Teams do not work in a vacuum. They work within organizations to meet organizational goals and the goals of their customers. Thus, the policies, regulations and constraints of organization also help set the right boundaries for a Scrum Team. In the name self-management or autonomy one cannot simply disregard these boundaries; else it might have ripple effects on the organization.
Implementing and Evolving Boundaries
The boundaries of self-management are not written in stone. They are allowed to evolve as the team members mature and as they better understand the context of their domain and product. Establishing the boundaries of self-management is an iterative process and requires continuous inspection and adaptation. A couple of aspects that can help build better boundaries for self-management include:
- Involve the team: It would not make sense at all if someone else is setting the boundaries of self-management for the Scrum Team. It is important to let the team define their boundaries. Scrum and organizational constraints can create the necessary guardrails that can help the team to define and evolve their boundaries.This also fosters a sense of ownership.
- One step at a time: It is not required to define all boundaries at once. Establish what is most important to start with for ex: DoD, Working Agreements. And then add more as needed. Also take time to review and modify previously set boundaries as needed.
- Clarity around boundaries: Creating transparency around established boundaries is important. It enables people to make right choices and decisions. Make the boundaries explicit and make them easily accessible.
- Provide context: When setting the boundaries it is important to establish “WHY” the boundaries are important and how do they foster self-management. This will create a better environment to adhere to the boundaries.
- Empowerment with accountability: When fostering self-management, accountability is key. People need to be empowered to make the decisions within their boundaries and should be held accountable to those decisions. This creates a culture of ownership and encourages teams to take responsibility for their actions. If people are not empowered then there won’t be self-management and if they are not held accountable, nothing will get done.
Conclusion
Self-managing teams do not happen magically. It requires a lot of effort, planning, and thought to establish a balance between alignment and autonomy. Leaders need to clearly communicate that the boundaries of self-management are not constraints but guardrails for fostering the right culture, expectations and ownership with which self-management can flourish.