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The first scrum implementation took place in 1993 when Jeff Sutherland, John Scumniotales and Jeff McKenna implemented scrum at the Easel Corporation. That’s 30 years ago! It's been a long time during which whole generations of employees have been operating in the scrum framework and have reached a maturity level that was simply not there in the early years. Part of that maturation is the ability, willingness, and desire of the scrum teams to move to the next level of “autonomy” that does not require a dedicated and embedded scrum lead for all scrum teams. 

Start with Why?

Scalability and autonomy are the primary reasons why organizations should consider self-managing teams. As engineering organizations mature and scale, the proliferation of scrum leads on every team might be unnecessary due to the maturity of the team. The embedded scrum leads work with the teams that are just forming, while stable, mature and performing scrum teams operate in a self-managing model with the occasional and targeted support from the agile coach. The scrum lead role is performed or shared by other functions on the scrum team such as product or engineering.

Cost must not be a driver in a move to self-managing teams. The measure of success for a scrum team is the velocity and effectiveness with which they deliver business impact. Therefore, if a scrum lead is required to ensure the effective operation of the team, as noted above, then the investment in a dedicated resource is prudent. Without the right level of support and maturity of the scrum teams, push for self-managing approach can have a disastrous impact. 

Top 5 considerations necessary to succeed with implementing self-managing teams

One of the goals and measures of success for an embedded scrum lead should be to work towards helping the team reach the stage when they can become self-managing. 

1. Team Maturity Measurement There needs to be an assessment of the stage each scrum team is in to identify the right model of operations for them. Tools such as Agility Health Radar are useful in making the initial assessment and then measuring and keeping a pulse on the team maturation to know when the time is right to move from an embedded scrum lead model to self-management. 

2. Removing Impediments Managers and leaders need to be committed to helping teams resolve impediments which are outside of their ability to resolve. Which issues are outside of team’s ability to resolve mostly depends on the organization and is not an exact set for all companies. Things like the control over budgets, prioritization of work, architecture of the software stack, ability to pursue new hypothesis in service of delivering the most value, organizational culture, norms, and practices will dictate what may and may not be within the team’s control. Without leadership support for issues outside of team’s ability to independently resolve, the team might be blocked for an extended period of time and their velocity and ability to deliver value will be negatively impacted. Lack of such support also results in the person in the scrum lead role having to dedicate extensive amount of time to resolving those impediments,instead of his or her other key responsibilities (i.e. as a product owner or engineer on the team).

 The measure of success for a scrum team is the velocity and effectiveness with which they deliver business impact 

3. Accountability Scrum Leads in the organization need to take pride in their ability to help teams reach the self-managing stage and be able to move between scrum lead stance and agile coach stance, depending on the stage and maturity of the team.

4. Rules of engagement A team must clearly define which decisions are within their control vs which ones require an input, engagement, or approval from outside of the core scrum team. Examples of decisions that might be within team control, just like the ability to remove impediments, depends on the norms and practices of each organization. In some organizations teams can, for example, decide the sequence in which they will do their work, but in others that might require approval from product, business and / or engineering leadership. The key is for teams to be clear on what is true in their environment. That said, the more autonomy and control the teams have over their work usually results in the teams being able to move faster with greater velocity and either deliver value faster or learn faster. 

5. Growth Mindset The leadership needs to be committed to trusting the decisions made by the self-managing teams and accept that there is no growth without an occasional failure. 

Top 5 characteristics of a successful self-managing team

1. Objective Self-Assessment. Scrum team members are aligned and supportive of the idea of operating in a self-managing model of operation. This usually happens when teams reach the performing stage or are on a cusp of it.

2. Continuous Improvement. Scrum team members are committed to continuous improvement and asking, “How can we improve?” Being relentless in driving improvements is embedded in their DNA. 

3. Clarity of Goals. Team members are crystal clear about their purpose, mission, and goals and take full ownership of everything required to deliver on their business objectives. 

4. Influence and knowledge. Team members are adept at solving team problems and have enough influence and knowledge about the organization to know the fastest path to impediment removal.

5. Transparency and Accountability. Team members are skilled in healthy negotiations of goals and are transparent with their team’s metrics, backlogs, plans, risks, and dependencies.

If you believe your organization is ready for self-management transformation follow the agile mantra - test, learn and adapt. The journey will not look the same for every company and every team, but the benefits the self-managing teams can bring to your organization and individuals are worth the effort.