The Future of Agile Roles != The Future of Agility

These are “interesting” times in the Agile/Scrum community. Is Agile Dead? What IS the future of Scrum? Of Agile? Are we in a phase of disillusionment? What IS the path to enlightenment? 

How will we eliminate the “agile theater debt” accumulated through many years of unsustainable growth of Scrum/Agile adoption? 

Specifically, What is the future of Scrum Masters? Agile Coaches? 

More and more leaders are starting to see these as accountabilities, rather than discrete roles. 

They realize that the sort of leadership Scrum Mastery entails should be integrated rather than provided by a dedicated role. The Scrum Guide for Leaders goes into the considerations in more depth. 

One example is the VP of Engineering in a growing startup, who decided to take on the SAFe RTE role (Chief Scrum Master for the Agile Release Train) since they felt it was up to them to provide this leadership. 

Remember – Scrum Accountabilities != Scrum Roles

This way of thinking is supported by the 2020 Scrum Guide update that changes the language from Scrum Roles to Scrum Accountabilities. SAFe also sees itself as a dual operating system in parallel to the organizational structure, which means the Scrum Master and other roles should be seen as accountabilities.

If/When leaders take these new ways of leading and showing up to heart, it creates healthy and sustainable agility. Getting there requires support and coaching of course.

Sometimes, you do need someone dedicated to agility

In addition, there are situations where no one is passionate about organizational performance, health, agility, and development. In these contexts, the right move IS to have a person dedicated to these accountabilities. Most of the time, these people are brought in to become part of the leadership team of a larger group. 

So, what does the reduction in force of Agile roles mean? 

Is “laying off all agile roles” a sign that a company has achieved agile nirvana? Probably not. 

What we’re seeing right now in the market is more often one of these scenarios: 

• Companies wake up to the reality that they are DOING Agile (rather than BEING Agile) and see the Agile roles as part of the problem. 

• Companies that believe in their Agile way of working and have achieved a reasonable level of agility. They want to continue to improve, but when looking to extend their runway in the current macroeconomic environment, they make the tough but necessary decision to spend less on the “future of work” and more on “doing current work”. 

• Change in leadership and the loss of a formal or informal Agile Champion leads to a shift in perspective about agility. 

• Companies where people in agile roles are making an impact but either don’t care or struggle to provide transparency to this impact in a way that will resonate with business people (think CFO). In the current context, this isn’t a very sustainable strategy… 

Now what? 

If you’re in an Agile role (Scrum Master, RTE, etc.) I recommend you focus on continuously improving the effectiveness and results of your team (or ART), in a way that is impactful to the business, ideally in a quantifiable way. Look at Evidence-based Management for ideas regarding what to focus on and what conversations to have with your team and stakeholders. 

It might be frightening, but you should also consider asking your team, stakeholders, and leadership a question used in Netflix – How hard would you fight to keep me here? The answer and conversation might be tough to hear – but it will provide the transparency you need to inspect and adapt your focus. 

If you’re in a big organization with a formal or informal agile role community of practice, I recommend you make this a topic you work on. 

The optimistic in me hopes that, as a community, we will use this as a wake-up call that will positively impact what we focus on and the value we bring to organizations. 

What about me? I’m focusing on closing the curtain on agile theater. I’ve become the agile fixer guy, helping leaders see beyond the process dogma/BS, reconnecting to the intent and first principles of agility, and finding ways to make them work in their context.

If your organization needs a pragmatic recovery path, start with Fixing Your Agility and then use Work With Me for engagement options.