Leadership in an Agile software development environment

Have you wondered what exactly is Agile Methodology and how that is applied to Agile software development?

Since the agile software development movement started some companies are seeking solutions to the problems that come with traditional project management, the belief that there is no need for a Project Manager has been gaining acceptance.

The Scrum Master role proposed by the Agile Scrum Methodology is similar to the Project Management role. The Scrum Master is a person who works with a self-organized team, and this person is responsible for providing all the team needs to accomplish the project goals.

The Agile Methodology provides exciting and innovative practices that have been successfully applied in projects over the years. There are controversial thoughts about the application of these practices, especially in projects where it is required to carefully manage more variables than the mentioned in the Agile reference guides. However, in those scenarios we also think a Scrum Master adds significant value, for instance:

• To keep a balanced budget/time/needs when having a limited budget, all of the functionalities are required, and a deadline has to be met. Even when you might believe this is a Sponsor/Product Owner responsibility, having a Scrum Master able to manage these constraints can improve the quality of a web application development or mobile app development.
• To manage risks, especially in scenarios where a dedicated software development team must manage daily changes.
• To manage entry-level employees or employees that are being trained, it is useful to use effective methods to guide the team, being able to apply an adaptive leadership depending on the skills of each dedicated software development team member.
• To manage stakeholders by translating their expectations to the team and vice-versa.

A lot of opinions have been written about all these real-world situations, and it makes sense to have an Agile software development leader who can use his experience to provide the team with more support.

Having a person who can manage everything that may prevent the quality and success of the project, and managing customer expectations, by leading the team to work in the best possible way.

By identifying the weakness of the traditional software methodology and knowing the successful cases that have applied the Agile software development methodology, the question is: Why can’t we have the best of both worlds?

• Where the project leader does not waste time building huge matrixes to manage risk; instead he/she could just identify the risks and decide either to mitigate, transfer, or share the risk.
• Where every important variable can measure the project: customer satisfaction, budget, delivery time and quality; instead of the many products or functions that have been developed.

At Teravision we can help you applied Agile Methodology to your software project, contact us.