Where should Agile sit within an organisation? This is a tricky one in which most companies fail to overlook but it's absolutely crucial to the success of their Agile Transformation and creating the right environment for Scrum Masters and Agile Coaches can perform their roles effectively and so that they can thrive!
1. The Scrum Masters and Agile Coaches report into a Programme Manager or Head of a Platform.
This is usually the least favourite option with very little chances of Agile Transformational success across an organisation.
Scrum Masters and Agile Coaches have one of the most difficult challenging roles in an organisation, as their roles are often about being agents of change - changing mindsets, changing structures, changing behaviours and much much more. The difficulty is that, as human beings, we are not designed too well when it comes to change, and many of us put up barriers around we do not understand. So unless a manager has been a Scrum Master and an Agile Coach themselves or is extremely open to being coached by their direct rapport which is often uncommon, they will have a difficult time being bought in and understanding and supporting changes, even if it's the right change that's vitally needed for the company.
This can often start to create a wall of conflict between the Scrum Masters and Agile Coaches and their managers as there will be a lot of misunderstandings that often occur. Scrum Masters and Coaches will face a difficult time trying to coach upwards with their manager and their manager may try to assert their own authority downwards if it doesn't match their view of how they have been use to working. This often means very little change and transformation can occur as they can often reach a bit of a stuck point. And a Scrum Master or Agile Coach may feel they have to back down from making the right decisions and changes as their career in fear of their career being on the line so due to the high risk of misunderstandings and pressures around conflicting views, this pairing does not always work well and can often preventing Agile from being successful in companies.
2. The Scrum Masters and Agile Coaches report into a Head of Agile and an Agile Practice Function.
This is usually the one of the best and most preferable option for most large scaled organisations.
Having a dedicated function for the Scrum Masters and Agile Coaches to report into, as you would for any other specialist role within the organisation. A Head of Agile is usually the best person as they have worked their way up and been an experienced Scrum Master or Agile Coach for many years to be in the right position to able to successfully guide and mentor, and will also have a big picture view as to the business agility and transformation at all levels, from ground level upwards.
A Head of Agile will also be able to set up the right structures in place to support the Scrum Masters and coaches within their function and providing good ground cover for advice. Without a strong Agile Community of Practice led by a Head of Agile across all your teams and platforms, it's easy for your Scrum Masters who handle very difficult challenges and easily suffer from imposter syndrome to become isolated, and it can also be difficult to shape consistency around Agile best practices and scale agility across teams.
This structure gives the Scrum Masters the empowerment to be able to lean on each other for support, as well as being able to effectively understand their challenges, concerns and pull together to support on challenges to the companies Agile Transformation.
3. The Scrum Masters and Agile Coaches report into HR or a People and Organisational Change Department
This is one that is very far less commonly seen, but one that would have the greatest impact on Agility across an organisation. Human Resources similar to Scrum Masters and Agile Coaches are often focused around company culture and creating the right structures, support and the right environment for their people to thrive.
People often mistake Agile for being just embedded inside the software teams however Agile is all about people mindset, and cultural change is at the heart of every successful Agile Transformation. For an organisation to be truly Agile, the whole organisation needs to shift, not just at team level.
Some of the benefits from Scrum Masters and Agile Coaches reporting into HR would be supporting conversations around: - How we tackle performance management?
- How do we recruit and successfully onboard our people?
- How do we grow and develop our people?
- How do we structure and organise our teams to deliver value to our customers faster?
- How do we break down silos across departments and teams?
- How do we reward and recognise?
- How do we embrace a feedback and learning culture through our organisation?
- How do we increase engagement and build psychological safety?
Comments