Summary
There is more to management than handing out assignments and taking notes in the weekly status meeting. That "more" is the part that remains when you adopt an agile method.

From a position statement prepaired for an oopsla panel on the need for xp/agile managers ...

There is more to management than handing out assignments and taking notes in the weekly status meeting. That "more" is the part that remains when you adopt an agile method. Extreme programming, for example, says nothing about capital purchase approval or salary administration, but that doesn't make these "downward looking" responsibilities go away. There are also "upward looking" responsibilities budgeting and strategic planning that are probably best if shouldered by an individual.

Still agile teams take time consuming management activities and make them their own. That means a manager does more oversight than day to day "managing" of the programming activities. Can we therefore expect the role to change? Certainly. Every XP value, communication, simplicity, feedback and courage, suggests possibilities for the role. Can paired managing be far behind?

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About the Blogger

Ward Cunningham is a founder of Cunningham & Cunningham, Inc. He has served as Director of R&D at Wyatt Software and as Principle Engineer in the Tektronix Computer Research Laboratory. Ward is well known for his contributions to the developing practice of object-oriented programming, the variation called Extreme Programming, and the communities hosted by his WikiWikiWeb. He is active with the Hillside Group and has served as program chair of the Pattern Languages of Programs conference which it sponsors. Ward created the CRC design method which helps teams find objects. Ward has written for PLoP, JOOP and OOPSLA on Patterns, Objects, CRC and related topics.