Coaching towards Self-Management in Agile Software Teams

Abstract

Agile software development methodologies underline the importance of having self-managing teams. These are teams with authority to plan, schedule and otherwise manage their own work. The literature within the software domain is scarce on self-management in relation to agile software teams. There is a lot more research on self-managing teams within more general teams literature.

Inspired by the teams literature, this report presents an exploratory case study on howcoaches and managers coach towards self-management in agile software teams. The study interviewed both coaches and managers to explore what behaviors they exhibited and which actions they took, and howthese affected self-management. The report also discusswhat effects team design has on coaching and questions some of the designs in the case studied.

The findings suggest that coaches and managers are process-focused when working towards self-management. There is less focus on self-managing behaviors among individuals and the team. The review sessions provided by some agile methods were identified as important to coaching. Intervening in teams work was confirmed as negative to teams self-management