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Understanding the Roles of the Manager in Agile Project Management

Authors:

Yogeshwar Shastri,

Robert AmorAuthors Info & Claims

ISEC '17: Proceedings of the 10th Innovations in Software Engineering Conference

Pages 45 - 55

https://doi.org/10.1145/3021460.3021465

Published: 05 February 2017 Publication History

Abstract

Agile project management (APM) does away with the role and the job title of the manager and instead places emphasis on self-organizing teams. However, recent surveys show that the job title of managers, particularly the project manager, is in existence on a significant number of agile projects. At the same time there is very little empirical evidence on the manager's role in an APM framework. To address this issue, a Grounded Theory study involving 20 software professionals from 18 different organizations which employed Agile Software Development (ASD) was carried out. The key finding of this preliminary study is the identification of the four roles played by managers on agile teams: mentor, coordinator, negotiator, and process adapter. As a mentor, the manager guides and supports the team in agile practice; the coordinator facilitates and coordinates the teams functioning; the negotiator takes care of the budget and customer requirements; and as a process adapter, the manager customizes agile and also implements agile-waterfall hybrids. The results of this study highlight the need for in-depth research into the different management roles and functioning of the agile team and manager. Additionally, this study will help guide new and existing managers to better understand the various aspects and boundaries of their new roles on agile projects and enable them to better facilitate self-organizing teams.

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Cited By

Huck-Fries VSpitzer RThatcher JKrcmar H(2025)(No) Need to Apply Agile?Business & Information Systems Engineering10.1007/s12599-024-00916-0Online publication date: 3-Jan-2025
https://doi.org/10.1007/s12599-024-00916-0
Ulloa RHerrera RÁlvarez E(2024)Change Assessment as a Key Factor in Delivering Strategic Agility in Business TransformationRevista de Gestão Social e Ambiental10.24857/rgsa.v18n7-14618:7(e07544)Online publication date: 12-Jun-2024
https://doi.org/10.24857/rgsa.v18n7-146
Ahsan KHo M(2024)Analysis of Agile Project Manager Competencies From Recruitment SignalsIEEE Transactions on Engineering Management10.1109/TEM.2022.322203771(3892-3905)Online publication date: 2024
https://doi.org/10.1109/TEM.2022.3222037
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Understanding the Roles of the Manager in Agile Project Management
1. Social and professional topics
  1. Professional topics
    1. Management of computing and information systems
2. Software and its engineering
  1. Software creation and management
    1. Collaboration in software development
  2. Software notations and tools

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cover image ACM Other conferences

ISEC '17: Proceedings of the 10th Innovations in Software Engineering Conference

February 2017

235 pages

ISBN:9781450348560

DOI:10.1145/3021460

General Chair:
Ravi Prakash Gorthi
LNMIIT, Jaipur
,
Program Chairs:
Santonu Sarkar
BITS Pilani, K.K.Birla Goa Campus
,
Nenad Medvidovic
University of Southern California, LA, USA
,
Vinay Kulkarni
TCS, Pune
,
Atul Kumar
IBM Research, Banagalore
,
Padmaja Joshi
C-DAC, Mumbai
,
Paola Inverardi
University of L'Aquila, Italy
,
Publications Chairs:
Ashish Sureka
ABB Corporate Research Center, India
,
Richa Sharma
BML Munjal University, India

Copyright © 2017 ACM.

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Published: 05 February 2017

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ISEC '17: Innovations in Software Engineering Conference

February 5 - 7, 2017

Jaipur, India

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Cited By

Huck-Fries VSpitzer RThatcher JKrcmar H(2025)(No) Need to Apply Agile?Business & Information Systems Engineering10.1007/s12599-024-00916-0Online publication date: 3-Jan-2025
https://doi.org/10.1007/s12599-024-00916-0
Ulloa RHerrera RÁlvarez E(2024)Change Assessment as a Key Factor in Delivering Strategic Agility in Business TransformationRevista de Gestão Social e Ambiental10.24857/rgsa.v18n7-14618:7(e07544)Online publication date: 12-Jun-2024
https://doi.org/10.24857/rgsa.v18n7-146
Ahsan KHo M(2024)Analysis of Agile Project Manager Competencies From Recruitment SignalsIEEE Transactions on Engineering Management10.1109/TEM.2022.322203771(3892-3905)Online publication date: 2024
https://doi.org/10.1109/TEM.2022.3222037
Dilhara TJayasinghe SFernando I(2024)Factors Influencing the Adoption of Agile Project Management Methodologies by Engineering Teams in the Telecommunications Industry2024 International Research Conference on Smart Computing and Systems Engineering (SCSE)10.1109/SCSE61872.2024.10550785(1-7)Online publication date: 4-Apr-2024
https://doi.org/10.1109/SCSE61872.2024.10550785
Koana ULe QRahman SCarlson CChew FNayebi M(2024)Examining ownership models in software teamsEmpirical Software Engineering10.1007/s10664-024-10538-529:6Online publication date: 27-Sep-2024
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10664-024-10538-5
Hoda RHoda R(2024)Techniques of Qualitative Data CollectionQualitative Research with Socio-Technical Grounded Theory10.1007/978-3-031-60533-8_8(167-200)Online publication date: 10-Jun-2024
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Koana UChew FCarlson CNayebi MChandra SBlincoe KTonella P(2023)Ownership in the Hands of Accountability at Brightsquid: A Case Study and a Developer SurveyProceedings of the 31st ACM Joint European Software Engineering Conference and Symposium on the Foundations of Software Engineering10.1145/3611643.3613890(2008-2019)Online publication date: 30-Nov-2023
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Andrade ÁMattos CFortuna ARamos LSantos RSantos G(2023)Critical Success Factors of Agile Transformation Initiatives from a Project Management PerspectiveProceedings of the XIX Brazilian Symposium on Information Systems10.1145/3592813.3592936(443-450)Online publication date: 29-May-2023
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Masood ZHoda RBlincoe K(2022)What Drives and Sustains Self-Assignment in Agile TeamsIEEE Transactions on Software Engineering10.1109/TSE.2021.310173248:9(3626-3639)Online publication date: 1-Sep-2022
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